Global professional services company Accenture has teamed up with immersive content specialist Specular Theory on a new virtual reality (VR) experience that showcases their vision for the future of VR commerce in Behind the Style.
Using a combination of storytelling, interactive branching choices and the ability to actually shop and make purchases, the companies are looking to create a new VR category where brands and retailers can connect with consumers in more entertaining, relevant and memorable ways.
“In order to be authentic, VR should not copy the medium before it. This has always been the focus of our company. It’s a new medium that requires a new creative approach and an entirely new set of technology tools. With Behind The Style, we get to experience it the way we want to. It’s very organic and natural and makes it really come together by combining entertainment, technology and commerce in a whole new way. The technology of our live-action video and branching choices solves a major problem with traditional VR video that brings new levels of immersion and interactivity,” said Morris May, CEO of Specular Theory in a statement.
In Behind The Style viewers find themselves in fashion photo shoot, surrounded by top artists and industry pros, where they can interact with products and participate by making choices that affect the outcome of the shoot.
“With Behind the Style it was important for us to create an experience that could make users easily relate to the characters, relate to what was being shown, and naturally interact with the storyline and the products,” said Raffaella Camera, Head of Extended Reality Go to Market for Accenture in North America. “For the brands, we wanted to create an experience that could be produced more easily and efficiently, by extending or piggy-backing on more traditional marketing and advertising activities that are already in the works like a photo shoot or a commercial shoot. That is why we chose to create an interactive and entertainment-filled film, where the characters naturally speak directly to users, bringing them into the storyline and inspiring purchases within the experience.”
Specular Theory and Accenture will be showcasing Behind The Style at Innov8, but haven’t yet said when it might be shown more widely to consumers. When that happens, VRFocus will let you know.
Submissions are open now and will be up until 4th August 2017, with selected ‘Innov8tors’ announced on 16th August 2017. with an invitation only gala event scheduled for some time in October Selected winners will be given development capital, mentorship and the chance to work with retail names such as Walmart.