Impacts of Virtual Reality on the Psychology of Users and its Implementation in Brand Communication. VR as the Future of Advertising?

Master's Thesis from the year 2021 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt (Fachbereich Media), language: English, abstract: This study acts as an intersection set of four different disciplines: psychology, virtual reality, communications, marketing, to develop innovative proposals for the prospective utilization of virtual reality medium in marketing communications. The thesis initially aims to detect the psychological effects of VR on three crucial phenomena concerning the qualities of a satisfactory immersive experience in VR: emotions, sense of presence, and perception, with the help of thematic analysis, by compiling various scientific studies within its scope. Further, it aspires to benefit from psychological elements detected to come up with more efficient VR experiences in favor of brand communication endeavors. Virtual Reality, both as a phenomenon and technology, has covered an immense distance, particularly over the recent two decades. In the current climate, the adventure that started with launching new-generation VR devices sparked by the Oculus brand exceeded the boundaries of being merely a gaming device. It has already become adopted by different disciplines for a variety of purposes. Moreover, since VR technology comes forth with unique features that cannot be matched with either of the technological devices existing, it is currently widely used in a range of sectors, including communications and marketing. However, some recent studies have revealed that Virtual Reality technology, thanks to its overly immersive nature, can have some psychological effects on its users. Apart from the discussions regarding the pearls and pitfalls of such effects, these impacts can also be used to create better virtual experiences in VR medium if they are analyzed well. Furthermore, in case that Virtual Reality will be used as the next communication medium, the experiences equipped with suchlike effects might also serve a variety of advertising efforts in near future.

Kaan Saracoglu is a communication specialist, advertiser, VR-AR laborer and an author who was born in 1995 at Bodrum/Turkey. He earned his Bachelor degree from the University of Istanbul in the faculty of Communication Science. Afterwards, he decided to take his career road into Germany, and he took Media Studies education at Ruhr University Bochum. During and after his Bachelor studies, he gained respectable job experiences with remarkable brands in the communication industry, especially in multinational marketing agencies such as HAVAS, BBDO and OGILVY. He recently earned his Master degree in Expanded Media at the University of Darmstadt, since he has a deep interest in new media technologies and their applications in marketing. Moreover, he holds an Associate degree in Retail Sales & Management as well as his second master's degree in Behavioral Sciences that aids him to understand the core of customer behavior affected by promotional activities. Currently, Kaan provides a freelance consultancy service in the fields of communication, customer behavior and Virtual Reality, along with his ongoing seeking for a PhD degree in terms of boosting his research interests.