Methods and Systems for Inserting Promotional Content into an Immersive Virtual Reality World

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a virtual reality media system, data representative of camera-captured real-world scenery, the data representative of the camera-captured real-world scenery captured by at least one video camera arranged to capture a 360-degree image of the real-world scenery around a center point corresponding to the video camera;
• generating, by the virtual reality media system based on the received data representative of the camera-captured real-world scenery, an immersive virtual reality world to be experienced by a user;
• providing, by the virtual reality media system for display on a display screen of a media player device associated with the user, a field of view of the immersive virtual reality world generated from the camera-captured real-world scenery, wherein the field of view includes content of the immersive virtual reality world and dynamically changes in response to user input provided by the user as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world;
• integrating, by the virtual reality media system into the immersive virtual reality world, a three-dimensional (“3D”) virtual object having an outer surface designated as a promotional content platform;
• requesting, by the virtual reality media system from a commercial advertisement exchange service configured to distribute two-dimensional (“2D”) commercial advertisements, data representative of a 2D commercial advertisement, the requesting based on a characteristic of at least one of the user and the camera-captured real-world scenery of the immersive virtual reality world;
• accessing, by the virtual reality media system from the commercial advertisement exchange service in response to the requesting, the data representative of the 2D commercial advertisement;
• and
• mapping, by the virtual reality media system in response to the accessing and based on the data representative of the 2D commercial advertisement, the 2D commercial advertisement onto the promotional content platform on the outer surface of the 3D virtual object such that the 2D commercial advertisement is viewable as a skin of the 3D virtual object when the outer surface of the 3D virtual object is located within the field of view of the immersive virtual reality world.

A system comprising:

• at least one physical computing device that:
• provides, for display on a display screen of a media player device associated with a user, a field of view of an immersive virtual reality world generated from and including camera-captured real-world scenery, wherein the field of view includes content of the immersive virtual reality world and dynamically changes in response to user input provided by the user as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world;
• integrates, into the immersive virtual reality world, a three-dimensional (“3D”) virtual object having an outer surface designated as a promotional content platform;
• accesses data representative of a two-dimensional (“2D”) promotional image;
• and
• maps the 2D promotional image onto the promotional content platform on the outer surface of the 3D virtual object such that the 2D promotional image is viewable as a skin of the 3D virtual object when the outer surface of the 3D virtual object is located within the field of view of the immersive virtual reality world.