ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Virtual Reality (VR) marketing content for several high-profile Hollywood films released between 2015 and 2019, focusing on the notion of value creation in this emerging and evolving area of promotion. It applies Atkinson and Kennedy's (2018) collaborative VR production ecosystem model to these case studies and questions how shared values might be constructed across complex multi-stakeholder collaborations, looking beyond consumer/producer binaries. More importantly, it asks whether there is really room for co-creation of value/meaningful brand engagement for the consumer, given the alleged centrality of the consumer in such an immersive experience and VR's reputation for increased empathy/affective involvement. Finally, it considers the ethical implications of immersing consumers in a piece of advertising in this way, as well as the data privacy implications for an emerging technology market dominated by social media giants like Meta and TikTok. The chapter concludes by identifying some of the key issues that need to be resolved at the industry-level and some practical steps that could be taken going forwards.
