Ad Age sibling site Creativity gathered some of the past year's
best VR ideas in marketing -- some of which didn't even require a
bulky headset.
Mars Bus Ride
Lockheed Martin
This delightful idea took a group of lucky school kids on a "bus
ride" to Mars, in what the agency McCann New York billed as a
"group virtual reality experience." Working alongside Framestore's VR division, the agency
painstakingly outfitted a real bus with windows that displayed, via
VR technology, views that mimicked a trip around the red planet,
displaying 200 square miles of Martian surface. Turns out, the
children were really traveling to Washington D.C.'s USA Science and
Engineering Festival.
Times VR and The Displaced
The New York Times
'The Displaced' shines a light on the plight of children.
The New York Times opened up a whole new avenue of content when
it introduced its VR app. The paper distributed 1 million Google Cardboard headsets to
readers, who were invited to download the app, through which they
could view "The Displaced," a moving documentary tale of how war
has displaced 30 million children from their homes. It was directed
by Imraan Ismail and Times journalist Ben C. Solomon and produced
out of Vrse.works (now called Here Be Dragons). The app earned the
Mobile Grand Prix at Cannes, while "The Displaced" earned the
Cannes Entertainment Lions Grand Prix as well as "The Most Next"
Award at AICP.
Mr. Robot VR Experience
USA Network
Fans of USA Network's dystopian thriller "Mr. Robot" got a
deeper dive into the head of the show's protagonist, Elliot
Alderson, in this VR experience that debuted as a limited-run event
during San Diego's Comic-Con. Show creator Sam Esmail conceived a
story that allowed the audience to get high with Elliot and
experience a bit of the backstory for his relationship with drug
dealer/love interest Shayla Nico.
Produced out of Here Be Dragons and distributed through the
Within app, the project throws viewers into some uncomfortably
intimate moments—including an act with the couple on a Coney
Island Ferris wheel that turns psychedelic in an iPod
ad-reminiscent interlude. The VR tale debuted as part of a broader
experiential extravaganza that included a real-life recreation of
Elliot's bedroom and the show's iconic repair shop. (Creators
offered fans free Uber rides to the location in a "Mr.
Robot"-themed van.) Viewers were initially encouraged to watch all
at the same time before it was uploaded permanently to Within.
Jeju Flying Bike
Innisfree
Since VR typically requires you to wear a bulky helmet, it may
seem an unlikely platform for a beauty brand. But Korean company
Innisfree leveraged the technology to promote its eco-friendly
positioning with a fanciful VR bike ride that took consumers on a
jaunt through the country's Jeju Island, known for its natural
wonders. Participants pedaled atop exercise bikes to enhance the
experience, which took them on a flying tour and invited them to
sweep up green tea leaves and flower blooms. Perhaps one of the
smartest aspects of the campaign was the placement—within the
brand's location at the Shanghai Disney Resort shopping center, where visitors
presumably are already primed for such amusement. The idea was
created out of PostVisual, part of the JWT network.
Dreams of Dali
The Dali Museum
This fantastic experience for Florida's Dali Museum from Goodby,
Silverstein & Partners throws viewers into the surreal world of
one of Salvador Dali's early paintings, "Archeological Reminiscence
of Millet's 'Angelus'" from 1935. It takes participants through the
work's foreboding, barren landscape, zooming into and around a pair
of looming rocky monoliths and past long-legged elephants and
hovering ravens. It was a fresh, entertaining use of the medium
that helped to educate in the unexpected category of arts
institution marketing.
Although explosive news about the Galaxy Note 7 has dominated
the Samsung conversation of late, the brand is arguably one of the
smartest and most experienced marketers in the VR space, with
executions that allowed people to go shark diving and even helped a
far-flung father watch the birth of his child. More recently, the
brand helped traveling parents return home, virtually, to read
their kids a bedtime story in a campaign from BBH London and Unit9. Bedtime VR Stories is
an app that brings separated families together to share an
immersive, storytelling experience through VR and VOIP (Voice Over
Internet Protocol). The story unites parent and child in a
whimsical tale in which they encounter characters like Dan the
Dinosaur, Jen the Penguin and Robot Jo—taking them all the
way from the arctic into outer space.
The Martian VR Experience
20th Century Fox
Martian VR Experience
20th Century Fox made its commercial debut in VR by placing
users in the spacesuit of Matt Damon—as astronaut Mark Watney
from "The Martian." It's a 25-minute trip in which participants,
like Watney, have to work fast to ensure their own
survival—whether they're trying to recover plutonium without
exploding to bits or ejecting themselves from the Mars Ascent
Vehicle in the hopes of getting back to Earth. 20th Century Fox
along with Fox Innovation Lab, Ridley Scott's RSA Films and The Virtual Reality Company
partnered to create the project. Mr. Scott was executive producer
alongside Robert Stromberg, who also directed the VR
experience.
Digital health platform ZocDoc, along with Office of Baby, came
up with a brilliant idea to calm people waiting at the dentist.
They placed VR headsets in the waiting area so anxiety-ridden
patients could be transported to a more relaxing venue such as a
yoga retreat or lily pond. The brand's positioning is about making
the healthcare experience better online, so "we really wanted to
bring some of that ethos into the real world," said Office of Baby
Chief Creative Officer Paul Caiozzo.
Virtual Reality Test
Dramamine
This supercool stunt showed how Dramamine could alleviate one of
the familiar "side effects" to VR technology: nausea. Dramamine and
agency iStrategy Labs put five unlucky sufferers of motion sickness
through an extreme stomach challenge that paired an insane VR
experience involving rolling coasters, fighter jets and
superhero-style fly-throughs with gear that simulated taking their
bodies along for the ride. But the participants came prepared. Each
took a dose of Dramamine beforehand, and, according to the spot
that captured it all, everyone came away feeling just fine.
6x9 VR Solitary confinement
The Guardian
One of the most powerful aspects of VR is how it helps to enable
empathy in those who experience it. That's palpable in this work
from The Guardian and created alongside the Mill's content studio.
It sought to shine a light on the realities faced by the 80,000
U.S. prisoners in solitary confinement, who spend 22 to 24 hours a
day with no human contact. The experience "traps" the viewer in a
cell while playing the voices of real-life prisoners and
psychologists discussing the harrowing effects of such
imprisonment. Water dripping, doors slamming and even the scrawls
on the cement walls add to the claustrophobia.
Ann-Christine Diaz is the Creativity Editor at Ad Age. She has been covering the creative world of advertising and marketing for more than a decade. Outside of the job, she can be found getting in touch with her own creativity.
