Office Space: Inside SapientNitro and its desire to shift clients to VR

While we are still in the very early days of VR, but the medium is beginning to gain attention from heavyweight manufacturers interested in investing millions of dollars to gain mindshare.

Digital marketing agency SapientNitro, which is part of Publicis.Sapient, opened its Toronto office earlier this week and I ventured down to check it out. I would usually pass on visiting a space like this, however, SapientNitro is doing unique work for its clients related to VR, AI and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The office is on the 12th floor of an old garment factory and overlooks Toronto’s cityscape. Howie Howatson, executive creative director of SapientNitro, stated he wants it to be “The Kinetic Office: Where ideas collide.” Meaning, the office and the people within it is where “powerful storytelling and innovative technology meet.”

Apart from the bar, lack of cubicles and dedicated work spaces, the company outfitted its three floors with a staircase that features an interactive digital display. This is completely open-sourced and allows its developers to change adjust its functionality based on moods or actions.

SapientNitro is big into VR and encourages its clients to embrace the new technology for both marketing and sales opportunities.

Howard Goldkrand, innovations director at SapientNitro, showed off a VR experience the company built that transports you to New York to browse through a retail store in order to view specific products.

The experience consisted of the typical sights and sounds of the city, which was incredibly exciting, but this immersive experience also went a step further as I was able to interact with specific items and add them to my shopping cart. Once I took off the VR headset and removed the device, an app opened up on the smartphone with the option to immediately purchase. While this is still just a demo, the concept is incredibly sound and is truly the next phase of engagement.

“Right now, what we started with was in our own lab with ways that we can think about it. Because we touch so much eComm and mobile, we thought ‘let’s think about retail in the VR space.’ We chose as a team on how to create an experience that isn’t just about replicating the experience in the real world,” said Goldkrand. “For clients, we have to be very clear on where adoption is right now, what they think they are going to get out of it. Let’s just do it right, with the correct expectations.”

“Very few people have actually had proper experiences in VR. In a weird way, I want to celebrate that opportunity because that means we’re able to make something that people haven’t seen before in a diversity of ways. We need people to participate in this medium in order for the medium to not only worry about the momentum of adoption but actually change the creations that are coming from the medium.”