In many ways, VR and AR are a logical extension of 3D modeling capabilities to serve marketing use cases. Before 3D modeling revolutionized the way products are designed and manufactured, engineers used 2D drawings and physical models for prototyping, but to truly understand the scope and impact of a product — you had to build it. VR and AR are now enabling marketers to gain similar efficiencies by enabling buyers to “experience” products that are expensive to ship, complex to visualize, or just too dangerous to test.

It’s not often that B2B marketers get ahead of our B2C peers in technology innovation and adoption, but that’s clearly the case with VR and AR. While the use of these technologies in B2C is held back by the lack of mass adoption, B2B marketers in a small but growing number of industries have already realized the relatively small incremental expense in VR/AR solutions and headsets is easily offset by a few more closed/won deals.