While we are seeing more and more content being produced exclusively for VR, most use for that content is to be consumed at home or at trade shows. Now, this might be changing, as VR is increasingly used in guerilla-marketing. One of the first uses of VR as guerilla-marketing that caught our eye was the Jaguar Actual Reality campaign. While they were rather spoofing VR, instead of actually making the most of the technology, this new campaign we came across uses VR to literally transport users somewhere else. Following the rules of how to create a viral marketing campaign (500k+ views on Facebook and Youtube in first week), Georgian creative agency Leavingstone created a cool campaign for Old Spice involving VR as guerilla-marketing in a prank-style undertaking. The promotion happened in March 2016 on the streets of Tbilisi. What initially appears to be like a VR promotion for Ireland, quickly changes as the setting the users are placed in is modified while they are immersed in VR.
While this particular campaign is used for product promotion, there are similar possibilities for other touristic stakeholders and service providers. We are thinking cruise lines could let users take the HMD off in the cruise ship dining room with the ocean projected on the windows facing outside, destinations could exploit some clichees such as seen here with the Irish pubs, and airlines can recreate their lounges in the streets. There is certainly a lot of potential for use of VR as street-level promotion.
Check out the clip for more information. Do you know anything similar?
If you want to find out more about the techniques applied in this promotion and how to expand on the idea, check out the analysis on the Gamification in Tourism blog.
Roman Egger
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