Australian innovation in digital is being held back by CEOs that do not support digital holistically, according to a panel of digital experts at the AdTech Australia conference.
In a straw poll at the session, only about a quarter of delegates raised their hands to indicate their business leaders fully supported digital innovation.
The panel, however, believes more digital natives filling C-suite roles, such as Maile Carnegie at ANZ, will help drive the digital agenda. A slide showing the major digital players dominant on mobile illustrated they all had been in business for less than a decade.
Virtual reality and augmented reality were held up as the technologies that could have a major impact on advertising in the future.
Iain McDonald, who was co-founder of Razorfish, says VR is a lot more accessible than it seems, with Google's Cardboard player costing $3, and offers great promise.
“It's probably one of those technologies that is probably a little bit over-hyped at the moment,” he says.
The technology required to fool the human eye requires a screen with the resolution equivalent of 16,000 pixels squared per eye running at 240 frames per second. Current resolution for the Oculus Rift VR mask is 1080 x 1200 pixels per eye.
“I think we will go through a phase where there is a lot of novelty in VR. It will probably be applied in the gaming and porn industries first, which will drive the technology, as it has done with e-commerce,” McDonald adds.
“It doesn't mean we shouldn't be using it, there are some really interesting applications for businesses and brands to look at. I don't think they are mass, but they can be effective.”
Augmented reality is already being applied in some sectors. For example, realestate.com recently bought a company that allows buyers to view properties using a VR mask to give a visual and spatial impression of the building.
The panel said augmented reality would take off further if it is done in a more integrated and seamless way that allows users to interact on the go.
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