LAND ROVER DEFENDER
VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE
'The Defender needs to be experienced to be truly understood'.
Inspired by the new Land Rover Defender we wanted to create a story that people could be part of and one that would test their own capabilities. Our story needed to cover four geographical locations, test the participants capabilities and take them on an adventure. VR became the perfect platform to deliver this on and paired with a the Unreal Engine and realtime graphics, motion platform, 360 3D sound, wind simulator and vibration pads we had the tools to create a truly 4D experience placing the user in the heart of the experience. To get this right, the team went up in a helicopter with the doors removed to understand the feeling you get from doing this in real life.
We gamified the story giving the users an active role and we created a leaderboard and shareable content to increase the competitive nature of the experience. We designed the game mechanic to be like skiing; easy to learn but challenging to master, but no matter the level - totally enjoyable and above all else, FUN! The aim of the game was to simply take the best photos of the new Defender, whilst proving your own capabilities, as you’d be hanging out of a moving helicopter to do so. Fictional characters would help narrate the story, weaving in just enough product messaging to remain exciting and fun.
Our ambition was to thread the brand through the experience authentically. We did this by making full use of the queue where we set the scene with a mission briefing from Bear Grylls and a fictional character called Kim, who explains some of the product capabilities that you need to capture. Other digital interfaces throughout the queue offer up key information about new Defender - all of which is captured and analysed through a metric dashboard; allowing live updates to content and real post event measurement on ROI.
The result is a real story lead experience. The user is wowed as they feel air blasting through their hair and the authentic sound FX making you feel like you really are on the edge of your seat, dangling from a helicopter.