“The new normal” has caused companies to reevaluate how they get their messages and information to people. There are the virtual events as well as various online meetings, but one of the things that has been missing is the ability to “browse” and see what else is available. For me at least that portion is what I miss the most about tradeshows. Yes, there is value in seeing things I already know about just to verify that the performance in real life is as expected. The ability though to wander a show floor and find something new that is what I have been missing.
I had an opportunity to “tour” the LG DigiTour Immersive 3D Showroom before it launched and found that they had found solutions to some of these issues. I was able to simply walk through their virtual space, booth, experience center and find things. Find things I hadn’t known about. There is also Tim that is the host of the event and helping people find their way. No, Tim is not AVNation’s Tim. It was the experience that many people have been talking about missing at shows, the ability to wander. It also surprised me as to how many LG products I was not aware of.
I spoke with Damaris Toma, Experiential Marketing Lead at LG Business Solutions USA, about the process and concept behind the platform. Yes, it is a platform not just a website. The platform is built to be as immersive as practical using Unreal Engine. If this sounds familiar, Unreal Engine is the power behind Disney’s Mandalorian’s visual effects. From talking with Damaris it became clear that she and her team were very focused on not what can we do, but what will help our customers.
One of the things that Damaris highlighted was the importance of being browser based and able to be used on multiple platforms. I tried the website on my various devices and with various browsers. Yes, it worked well as she said it would. It also opened possibilities, now I had a tool I could easily access that provided me information. I could easily see myself working with a client and walking them through a space to show them ideas. In the distanced world, this solution worked well over web meetings.
The accuracy of the product representations was better than I had expected. Damaris pointed out, “All of the renderings are based on the actual CAD files for the products, this includes details such as bezels at the right size.” This approach continued through to video walls that accurately include the “seams” which is very refreshing as it better conveys the experience.
Damaris made it clear that DigiTour was prompted by the pandemic, but it is very likely it will become a permanent staple in how LG interacts with customers. “We’ve built a means to reach audiences remotely – even audiences that may not have been at a physical tradeshow,” she said. “It’s a future-proof way to ensure that we can serve our customers remotely, now and in the years to come.”
The LG DigiTour website is designed to be a B2B solution and they are aware of the challenges that can occur with customers “walking” in. Their chat function will address the issue by providing contacts to resellers, not circumventing the sales channel. LG has also indicated that the second tier of the Chat, tool after the Chatbot, will be actual product experts not people reading and replying through a script.
You can see a walk-through video on YouTube at https://youtu.be/DnA04QDyM6g but that does not really give the full experience, I would recommend going and looking at LGDigiTour.com. A little easter egg for you for reading this far, be on the lookout for a Peerless mount.
