Insight
Seeing is believing, but doing is understanding.
The idea of virtual reality opening up the potential to a new world without limits is talked about, even awarded, within the tech community but the demand to actually buy the product outside this relatively niche circle is low. Why?
Online demo videos were not enough, especially for an audience who had a low brand engagement score with HTC. They are great at sharing their respected point of view but notoriously difficult to excite.
What OMD did know was that was when people put on the headset and experienced the technology and virtual reality in all its glory the novelty turns interest into actual sales. Engagement and experience would sit at the heart of the Vive product launch.
Finding the right ‘experience’ for the audience, a discerning early adopter, would have to be as disruptive and creative as the product itself. ‘The target audience’s fascination with immersive theatre would be an inspiration behind creating an exciting experience that would blur the lines between reality and a virtual world’.
By engaging a few with an interactive, immersive and once in a lifetime experience, would drive sharing an understanding of the Vive with many.
Strategy
Offer people the opportunity to experience an apocalypse, but still get up and eat their cornflakes the next morning. Virtually Dead.
The agency partnered with Noma Labs and conducted focus groups amongst the target consumer in both London and Paris, to identify which VR content resonated the best. It had seven different options, ranging from interactive art to Arizona Sunshine, which is zombie shoot-em-up content.
Humans are inherently fascinated by the possibility of the end of the world and Arizona Sunshine would be the bespoke VR content that sat at the heart of the experience. Chosen by the target audience for the target audience. It was an apocalyptic zombie fest where players would be faced with a deadly virus and a mob of flesh eating zombies to contend with.
OMD wanted people to be immersed in a post apocalyptic world, so they would become part of the story, and the cutting edge technology of HTC’s virtual reality would push the boundaries of realism. They would shoot, bash, slash and explode their way through hordes of the undead that would be close enough to touch.
The agency set out to find the right brand partner to co-create and raise awareness of the ‘Virtually Dead’ end of the world event. They would have to be credible and already have regular communication with millennials willing to push the boundaries in their everyday lives.
By partnering up with Noma Labs and their platform Dojo it would offer people to be a part of an event that would be part virtual reality and part immersive experience, blurring the lines between real and virtual, all made possible with HTC’s pioneering technology and Arizona Sunshine’s creative content.
Introducing Virtually Dead - a brand new immersive experience.
Execution
A bloody apocalypse was coming to town near you.
People paid to come to the product launch; ticket sales came from Noma Labs who pushed six teaser videos re-targeting the same audience with different edits via Facebook and in-app promotions via its Dojo App. The agency also had tube posters go live in London for two weeks, promoting the event in the geographically relevant major tube stations.
OMD created the opportunity for future B2B and brand partnerships with an exclusive experience window, which was opened for marketing teams from PepsiCo to Nike to Disney.
On the day the zombie slashers were picked up by an army truck and taken to the venue, which was in a secret location in East London, adding to the excitement and creepiness of what was to come.
The secret training facility was entered through a dank warehouse that stretched over a kilometre, immediately becoming immersed in the storyline thanks to a help of a cast of 35 actors, various scary moments and tunnels to navigate.
Eventually taking on the living dead in 360° virtual reality on an HTC Vive headset. Vertigo games created a bespoke version of their zombie Arizona Sunshine experience specifically for the gory part-virtual apocalyptic experience.
It was a one hour-long experience, with 13 minutes of virtual reality.
After spending the day slashing zombies the agency followed up with attendees via email inviting them to pre-order the headset and continue experience the pioneering tech in their front rooms.
Results
The product sold out! £300,000 ($398,000) worth of tickets paid for by Influential Millennial’s to attend the launch of a brand new, totally unknown product turning HTC into a leading brand amongst a difficult to engage audience.
After showing the first teaser video in London tickets sold out in just over a week and it put on more shows to meet the demand: 900 shows over a three-week period, the equivalent to a popular West End show running for over two years.
Reducing the CPA by three quarters in London and half in Paris. Smashing targets and creating space in the minds of Millennial’s for HTC.
The targeting strategy resulted in 15 million video views, 9,553 trials, four members of Rudimental, one Jonathan Ross and one Fat Boy Slim attended generating £1m ($1.3m)+ PR value across the mainstream media with a total reach of the Virtually Dead experience of over 150 million globally.
Spending quality time with the product elevated advocacy to an unprecedented level for HTC. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were flooded with positive comments about the experience.
Engagement sat at the heart of the campaign by combining HTC’s VR technology with bespoke content - creating a once in a lifetime apocalyptic experience.