When it comes to events and one-to-one engagement, marketers are continuously looking for the next best way to connect with people and get their key messages across. Presentations turned into demos and over the last few years the increase of touchscreens and virtual reality (VR) headsets have enabled people get closer to the action.
Having been to various exhibitions across the world over the last few years, the level of innovation and use of technology to engage with attendees continues to impress me. Huge ultra high-definition screens, interactive spaces, dancing water features, compelling creatives and 4D roller-coaster rides are giving people overwhelming impressive moments.
Over the last couple of years I have been working on projects involving VR headsets and 360 cameras. The technology and associated software is getting better with each iteration. The days of low-resolution, rough footage where you can see the stitches and need your imagination to fill in the gaps are behind us. The Samsung 360 Gear alone has made it possible for small film makers to capture live footage and put people into any environment. There still needs to be a level of skill to reduce the visibility of the tripod and matching the seems up but that's more for the trained eye than Joe Public.
So you've now got the ability to create great 360 content that you can put in a headset and have someone completely immersed in your videos and messages. Walking the halls of these events I began to realise that lots of money was being spent on creating compelling content but as the price of headsets came down they started popping up on every other stand. Which one do I stop and engage with? The next challenge for events marketers became evident - how do you get people inside your headset?
And what about those that won't put a headset on? Well this is challenge that was posed to me in the run up to Mobile World Congress 2018. One part of the event is specifically targeted at government ministers, executives from the mobile industry, policy makers and many more VIPs. This group of people are not in the habit of putting on headsets, there are security risks and the worry of loosing face or being made to look foolish.
I reached out to some of my creative peers and found out how others were approaching this challenge. I was guided towards 360 immersive experiences. These are dome like structures where large groups of people can be completely immersed into a journey. With the use of 360 video you can transport people to parts of the world they have never been to, tell some extremely powerful stories by placing them in the heart of the issue and subtly demand their attention for a short period of time. It's almost impossible to take your eyes of the screen as you feel like you're in the space.
We built a team of people to focus on the creative story, the production and the logistics and created the story we wanted to tell, briefed out the visuals, filmed in remote parts of Pakistan and a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. We added voice overs and graphics to the early drafts and created a journey that groups of people could experience together.
This last point is the difference. Putting someone in a headset gives them an individual experience, they witness it and don't really vocalise their feelings once it's done. When you put people together and take them through a shared experience you get the ability to connect and discuss moments they capture or the way it made them feel. Regardless of what is going on in the outside world you all collectively escape to another world and witness something you weren't expecting. Having people who can drive change and make a difference 'feel' something over hearing or seeing something is a powerful marketing tool and I hope to witness more of it over the coming years.
Below is a 2D version of the 360 experience for you to watch - you may not get the full impact but you'll get the jist. Make sure you have a look around to catch all the different parts of the story.
Below are some reactions from those who had been in the immersive experience.