In Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality News
October 9, 2020 – Blend Media, a provider of immersive content, which counts Facebook, Google, Disney and L’Oreal amongst its clients, has this week announced the launch of ‘Blend Market’, a new single platform that connects brands and businesses with creators and creative solutions.
Blend Market is an immersive marketplace dedicated to connecting clients with a global community of thousands of skilled creators and solution-providers with relevant skills across the entire augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), 3D and mixed reality (MR) spectrum (collectively XR).
According to the company, the launch follows a successful beta phase during which more than 700 of the brands and immersive technology creators signed up to the service, including global media platforms, publishers, music labels, film studios and professional services firms such as Deloitte, LADbible and Bill Kenwright Limited.
Blend Market officially rolled out on Tuesday this week, with a mission is to make immersive content, creators and solutions accessible to everyone. Blend Market’s features include:
- Project brief builder, guiding clients through the immersive briefing process;
- Real-time chat for messaging and project communication;
- File sharing for contracts, quotes and project deliverables;
- Automated project workflow including payments, milestones, and approvals;
- Creator portfolios;
- Client and creator reviews;
- Automation of the procurement process;
- Project referral programme.
“Immersive technology, or Extended Reality (XR) as it has become known, is an exciting, high-growth industry, with an explosion in hundreds of thousands of skilled creators. However, it is also a sector that is highly fragmented and, as such, requires an effective means of connecting,” said Blend Media Founder and CEO, Damian Collier.
“That’s why we first built our VR content licensing platform which has been a market leader since 2016 and why we’ve now built and launched Blend Market, to facilitate working relationships between businesses wishing to incorporate immersive solutions into their workflows and the creative professionals that can execute on those ambitions on a global scale. We look forward to enabling these fruitful partnerships through this new online marketplace.”
Blend Media stated that use cases for immersive technologies are wide-ranging and are evolving at pace; from 3D models of sofas, plants and kitchens for online retailers; AR filters and games for entertainment brands; XR learning in the classroom, enterprise training and human resources uses; 360 property, car, and hotel tours; to VR content in healthcare for dementia patients, during surgery, or training nurses.
Joe Williams, Immersive Tech Lead at LADbible Group: “For the creation of our branded Snapchat AR lens it was important to tap into content trends. We wanted to ensure we had access to creators that were growing their immersive skills and abilities and could match our ambition for the project. By putting our brief on Blend Market we were able to match our project with the best possible creator and the result was outstanding.”
For more information on Blend Market and how it works visit: https://market.blend.media
Image credit: Blend Media
About the author
Sam Sprigg
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.
