5 Reasons Why Marketers Should Care about Unreal

Unreal Engine. 

Even the name makes this a difficult otherworldly concept to grasp. 

When you’re trying to explain what this technology is and how it can actually be used by marketing teams and businesses, for the actual name to be something pretty esoteric that, in fact, means it doesn't exist, you can understand why that explanation might take a while. 

Then you see amazing films like the recent Matrix Awakens ad from Epic (which is all done in Unreal) or see your kids playing Fortnite and careening around a beautifully designed world, and you'd be forgiven for thinking “I sell mayonnaise/washing up liquid/fungal foot cream, surely this has no impact on my business?”. 

And why wouldn’t you think this if no one has shown you that you don’t need to work for a futuristic tech company or make supercars or the Neom? 

So, as part of our partnership with the IPA and Epic Games to bring Unreal to the industry (where we created a workshop to help make Unreal a reality for marketers) we decided that an example of how it works using a flashy hyper car or 170 KM long vertical mirror clad city.  

That is why we created the Bubble Buddies

Because these fun little bath time friends can show you why Unreal can have an impact on your business, whether you sell Mayo, Washing Powder, fungal foot cream or Soup. 

In fact, the more asset creation and automation you need, the more Unreal can save you time, money, carbon and stress.

So having presented this workshop (where our Unreal Wizard literally creates an ad campaign using the Bubble Buddies while presenting - showing how easy Unreal actually is to use) to hundreds of people, I have condensed 5 reasons why marketers should care about Unreal - and not be confused or scared by it. 

Automation 

This is about taking the benefits of real-time render and the inherent speed and reduced reliance on render farms and render time to streamline asset production.

Yeah, OK. Not the sexiest words. But my god it becomes attractive when you see just how much of your antiquated production processes Unreal can cut. 

Imagine this. Your campaign is set to go live across the globe but out of nowhere the T&Cs need to be updated. Disaster. Everything needs to be re-edited and re-rendered. It's potentially weeks of time and thousands of pounds. 

Not in Unreal. This can be changed and signed off in minutes. 

This works by creating what we call 'The Universal Asset' (the Bubble Buddies in this case) at the start of the campaign. Once you have that asset, you can drop them anywhere and do anything with them. You can create thousands of images in minutes that power your campaign across the globe. Across any platform or marketing channel as Unreal is platform agnostic when it comes to the output. Print, film, AR, VR? Everything is created from the same universal asset.

The level of automation offered also allows you to code workflows in Unreal that remove the mundane tasks allowing us to create bespoke pipelines. 

It's the end of complexity offering a centralised hub and leading to one agency one universal asset and one sign-off. 

Cost savings 

And as part of this, you get huge cost savings. 

Not just on the money saved by not having to set up shoots or product demos, or rigging or lighting. Or the financial complexity of running multiple businesses and agencies across multiple time zones and multiple sign-offs. Or the aforementioned renders which can cost thousands of pounds. 

All of this can be removed very quickly and very effectively. 

Time savings 

All of the above. It's not just money that you save, it's a huge amount of time. Time and money that can be invested in other areas of your marketing budget or the business. 

Sustainability 

Unreal, if used properly, means there is no need for shoots. Ever. 

The Ad Net Zero report showed that the average shoot uses 100 tons of CO2. 

You can save 100% of that by creating your ads in Unreal. Because you don’t need a shoot. 

If you take into account render farms and other CO2 elements of the outdated production process, then you stand to make a huge saving. AS does the planet. 

The Metaverse

Leaving this until last to neatly tie in with the Unreal/unreality motif of the intro. 

It's amazing that something that doesn't really exist yet is getting so much attention. 

But it will exist. And because of that, in the not-too-distant future, everything we create will need to be 3D. 

As Rachel Stones from Epic says at our Workshop “Your kids are already building 3D worlds in Minecraft and Roblox, why would they stop?”. 

At some stage in every product’s life cycle - prototyping, marketing, production - there will be a 3D model of that product. And because of that, it then lends itself to being ported into the Metaverse. 

By creating your 3D assets in Unreal, you are able to future-proof your production and allow your brand to be Metaverse-ready, which is where the automated pipeline we talked about above will put you streets (whether real or not) ahead of your competitors. 

Simply put, Unreal is a real opportunity to save time, money and the world, and can really be a reality for any business, no matter what you make or sell.