July 23, 2026
The role of 3D in product marketing is changing.
Until now, most online 3D experiences have focused on helping customers see a product more clearly. Buyers can rotate it, zoom in and view it from angles that static photography cannot provide.
MarTech3D's latest platform release takes the next step, enabling manufacturers to use the 3D model itself to educate and engage customers.
Manufacturing marketers can now add product information, images, videos, technical documents and website content directly to different parts of a 3D model. This turns the model from a visual asset into an interactive product experience through which buyers can explore both the product and the information surrounding it.
Interactive 3D first gained momentum in consumer ecommerce, where it helped answer straightforward buying questions: What does the product look like from every angle? How large is it? What might it look like in my home?
Manufacturers face a more complex challenge.
Industrial products are often high value, technically detailed and difficult to understand from photography and specifications alone. Buying decisions may involve multiple stakeholders, unfamiliar technology and long periods of independent research before a customer contacts sales.
A rotating 3D model can make the product more visually engaging, but it does not necessarily explain how the product works, which application it suits, what its individual components do or why a buyer should select it.
MarTech3D's new multimedia capability is designed to close that gap.
Relevant information can now be attached to the part of the product it explains. A buyer might select a component to view its purpose, watch an installation video, open a technical datasheet or explore related website content without leaving the 3D experience.
The model becomes the place where the explanation happens, rather than another visual sitting alongside a page of copy and downloadable documents.
This development comes as B2B buyers increasingly expect to complete more of their research independently.
Gartner reported in March 2026 that 67% of B2B buyers prefer a buying experience without a sales representative. Deloitte has also found that 86% of industrial manufacturing executives want better digital interfaces from their suppliers, while one in three places the availability of digital product models among their priorities when selecting one.
For manufacturers, the opportunity is not simply to make products appear more impressive online. It is to make complex products easier to understand before sales becomes involved.
Multimedia 3D experiences can help buyers:
This can create a more useful digital experience for buyers while giving marketing and sales teams a clearer way to communicate product value.
The new capability is powered by MarTech3D's Hotspot Wizard, an in-view content management workflow built specifically to make multimedia 3D content quick and straightforward to create
Marketing teams can select a point on a 3D model, choose the required content type and follow the guided process to add and style the hotspot.
Supported content includes:
The Hotspot Wizard is integrated with the MarTech3D Asset Library, allowing teams to upload new content or reuse files that are already available across their product library.
Users can also control the appearance of each hotspot, including the icon, fill, border, label and font colours, helping the finished experience remain consistent with the manufacturer's brand.
Because the content can be managed directly inside the 3D viewer, marketing teams can create and update experiences themselves without commissioning a separate development project.
Multimedia content can make a 3D product model useful across far more than a single webpage.
The same interactive experience can support:
This reflects a wider shift already visible among leading consumer brands.
Businesses such as IKEA and Apple have not treated 3D as a one-off campaign asset. They have built reusable digital product assets that can support websites, applications, augmented reality, configuration and multiple customer touchpoints.
Manufacturers already possess an equivalent starting point in their engineering and CAD data.
The opportunity is to convert that data into reusable product content that can support customers throughout the buying journey.
"3D entered marketing as a better way to show a product. For complex manufacturing products, the greater opportunity is to use it as a better way to explain one," said Mark Worger, CEO and Founder of MarTech3D.
"By placing product information, videos, documents and other useful content directly onto the model, manufacturers can help buyers work out far more for themselves. The important question is no longer only whether the model looks realistic, but what the customer learned from using it."
As adoption develops, 3D product models are likely to become less like individual assets commissioned for selected campaigns and more like a digital publishing format used across marketing, sales and customer education.
The value will not come from the model alone. It will come from everything the customer can understand, discover and accomplish through it.
MarTech3D's new multimedia Hotspot Wizard is available now within MarTech3D | Engine.
