Category: OmniVirt

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Sony Pictures Creates 360 Ad Campaign for Psychological Thriller Escape Room

Escape room games have become not only highly popular with virtual reality (VR) fans but have also spilled over into real life location-based entertainment (LBE) experiences. It’s the latter which has inspired the recent release of psychological thriller Escape Room by Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) in theatres. To promote the film, SPE has teamed up with VR/AR ad platform OmniVirt and creative agencies Pretty Big Monster and Stradella Road, for a 360-degree advertising campaign.

The online campaign is an interactive 360 experience where you have to explore three rooms from the film for clues. Upon finding the clue you can then unlock the door to the next area. And to add some incentive to complete the challenge, successful players will be able to enter their details into a sweepstake to win a trip to Los Angeles and a chance at winning $1 million USD.

The competition is open online until 31st January 2019, and only applicable to US residents age 13 and over. For full terms and conditions follow this link.

“Escape Room is a movie about a group of strangers who are trapped in elaborate rooms and have to solve deadly puzzles to escape. By creating an interactive 360° experience in our ads we were able to bring the immersive and intricate detail of each room to life into our marketing campaign,” said Rose Phillips, SVP of Digital Marketing for Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group in a statement.

OmniVirt

Sony Pictures worked with OmniVirt to distribute 360° advertisements across relevant media sites to target movie audiences, running 360° display banner ad units that link to the 360° Escape Room experience.

“Using 360° interactives to market entertainment properties is a great opportunity for studios,” said Jason Steinberg, Managing Partner of Pretty Big Monster. “The experiences immerse audiences in the story, while being widely accessible in today’s market. It’s a fresh and unexpected way for consumers to encounter content, and the response metrics are proof of their engagement. The performance is simply outstanding.”

OmniVirt’s previous collaborations have seen it work with Disney to help promote the Broadway musical version of Disney’s  Aladdin. 

Escape Room is out now in theatres. For further updates on 360 ad campaigns, keep reading VRFocus.

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Life In 360°: A Genie’s Offer

Some considerable time back on VRFocus (well, six months ago) it was Rebecca that brought you news of a new partnership between Disney – more specifically Disney Theatrical Productions – and OmniVirt. If you’re not familiar with the latter, they’re a company that actually crop up on the site quite often as they deal with advertising campaigns that use both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) and they do an awful lot with 360 degree video. 

Life In 360° / 360 Degree VideoThe partnership produced a promotional campaign for the Aladdin stage show on Broadway, the video made in association with another familiar name: Koncept VR. It featured a recording on stage from the Broadway cast of the Genie’s signature song Friend Like Me, made during a performance.  With the final production embellished with some factoids about the show and some additional production bells and whistles.

While we mentioned the campaign we never actually posted up the finished article, I was saving this for shortly after Christmas but unless things have drastically changed this is set to be the last edition of Life In 360° and the last day of posts on VRFocus. Certainly, for the foreseeable future. So as we’re rapidly approaching this time of year is often associated with the traditional Christmas pantomime (of which Aladdin is a highly popular choice) and you’re aying goodbye to me, let’s rectify that absence of the video.

“Disney Theatrical Productions reached out to Koncept VR, craving a new kind of 360° experience to showcase the hit Broadway musical, Aladdin. Our goal was to do something unique, going beyond what’s already been seen in 360° Broadway videos – we wanted to champion the showmakers!” Explain Koncept VR on the project. “That mission led to the development of animations that not only shared information about the production, but also encouraged the viewer to look all around during the performance. Spectacular visual cues were added to lead the viewer’s gaze…any given moment could reveal a delightful surprise. “

That’s all for now for Life In 360° here on VRFocus. I hope you’ve enjoyed our little jaunt around the various 360 degree videos the web provides. After all, you ain’t never had a friend like 360.

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Turner Broadcasting Partners With OmniVirt for VR Ad Campaign

While using virtual reality (VR) for advertising is still something of a contentious topic to many, there are some areas where its use does seem to make sense, particularly when the product you are advertising has much to do with the hazy world of dreams, as is the case for the new advertising campaign for Dream Corp LLC, which is being created as a partnership between Turner Broadcasting and immersive advertising firm OmniVirt.

Dream Corp LLC is a US comedy show that is described as an ‘absurd workplace comedy’. The TV show is set in a dream therapy facility, with the premise that dreams can be recorded and analysed, with a series of eccentric characters turning up to have their dreams analysed by Dr Roberts.

The series is broadcast on Adult Swim, a channel owned by turner Broadcasting. The channel has partnered with OmniVirt in order to create a VR advertising campaign aimed at promoting the second season of the show.

“It felt like virtual reality fit perfectly into this show, which is a sort of wacky show where these doctors are unlocking people’s dreams,” said OmniVert co-founder and chief operating officer Michael Rucker. “The experience of being able to essentially go into your dream takes full advantage of the medium here.”

The advertising campaign features the various characters of the show breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience as if they were patients at the facility. This then sees the viewer enter a surreal three-dimensional world designed to represent a particularly strange dream.

OmniVirt have become one of the most well-known names in immersive advertising, working with several big brands and well-known names such as Disney, Jaguar, EasyJet and Universal pictures.

The company has also conducted research that shows that immersive advertising holds the viewer’s attention more than static advertising, and generates more click-throughs.

For future coverage on new developments in VR advertising, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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CVS Partners With OmniVirt for 360-Degree Ad Campaign for BeautyIRL

Since virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video has become more popular, a number of companies have emerged seeking to find ways of monetising these new mediums. One of the most prominent is OmniVirt, who have announced its work with CVS to create an immersive advertising campaign for BeautyIRL.

The BeautyIRL is described as a ‘shop in shop’ experience where customers can try on make-up and hair products, and receive walk-in and on-demand salon services through a partnership with Glamsquad.

OmniVirt

The BeautyIRL experience will be located at the CVS flagship stores in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Florida.

In order to promote its new beauty retail experience, CVS is using an interactive 360-degree video to transport people to a virtual recreation of the BeautyIRL stations, so customers can get a feel for what the real life experience will entail.

The 360-degree advertising campaign will feature photos of BeautyIRL stations with clickable hotspots that will show further information about the Glamsquad salon services and other BeautyIRL products and services, such as the ‘Wonder Wall’ – a wall filled with miniature beauty products.

Several retailers have engaged with VR and other immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR) to allow customers to ‘try before they buy’, which some business have reported increases the number of sales and reduced returns.

OmniVirt have previously partnered with many big brands, including famous names such as Disney, Jaguar, EasyJet and Universal Pictures. The company has also conducted research which has shown that customers are more likely to engage with immersive advertising.

The research found that when presented with a 360-degree video, the majority of users would choose to interact with the video, resulting in a significantly higher level of user engagement, a result which OmniVirt says offers better results compared to 2D advertising formats.

For future coverage on use of immersive technology in advertising, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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TravelNevada’s 360-Degree Video Advert Campaign Has Been A Success

The Nevada state tourism board has announced that their TravelNevada’s 360-degree video advert campaign has scored high on engagement metrics. The campaign mantra of “Don’t Fence Me In”, which emphasizes the Nevada state of mind around adventure and exciting stories fits perfectly with the success of the campaign. The campaign gives users a complete 360-degree view of friends kayaking, hiking, and enjoying the adventure to be had in Nevada.

TravelNevada

Compared to the standard media adverts in the travel sector, which typically have ~0.15% CTRs according to Google’s Rich Media Gallery benchmarks, the 360-degree video campaign saw a 1% CTR. Additionally, users spent on average 60 seconds with the content which shows that users were interested in the advert compared to other media.

In launching the campaign, TravelNevada and its agency Fahlgren Mortine were looking for a way to visually wow and excite travelers about all the outdoors activities and hidden gems Nevada has to offer while doing so in an engaging way. TravelNevada had to overcome steep competition from other outdoor and adventure travel destinations and was keen to find a way to differentiate itself and tell a uniquely Nevada story. This is what the board turned to 360-degree and virtual reality (VR) content.

TravelNevada

The video provides users with the chance to actively explore the friends’ adventures like hiking, kayaking, and even enjoying a few drinks at popular local bars. By using the 360-degree format TravelNevada was able to put viewers right into the heart of the moment and immerse them within the emotions and fun while virtually transporting them into plenty of fun activities.

To create this content TravelNevada turned to OmniVirt, a VR and augmented reality (AR) advertising platform founded by former Google and YouTube employees. By taking the 360-degree content and then distributing across relevant properties including Expedia, Condé Nast Traveler, The New York Times, and more, OmniVirt was able to get the campaign into the hands of many.

Following the success of the current 360-degree campaign, TravelNevada plans to continue the campaign and add more proof to the power of 360-degree adverts. As this happens, VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest so stay tuned for more.

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Takis Teams Up With OmniVirt To Deliver Immersive 3D And 360 Degree Adverts

The confectionery and snack food company Takis have announced that they have launched a 3D and 360 degree advertising campaign in partnership with the 360 degree, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) platform, OmniVirt.

Takis

The advertising campaign has been designed to reach a younger customer base by leveraging the increasing popularity of online content, but also as to stand out among the ever growing clutter that is online adverting. Much like their bright-coloured bags of confectionery and snacks that jump off the supermarket shelf’s the company wanted their advertising campaign to do just the same.

In order to do this, Takis leveraged OmniVirt’s proprietary technology to build and distribute three immersive advert experiences across targeted websites including a 3D display advert, an interactive videogame, and a 360 degree dance battle as well. OmniVirt’s platform allows users a means to distribute immersive media advertising experience across a number of premium publishers networks and makes for an ideal partner for this venture.

Omnivirt

The 3D display advert sees users use their phone or click and drag on computer to play with a 3D models of an iconic bag of Takis chips. In the 360 degree dance battle, users will watch the Takis flavors come to life as a number of high school dancers battle it out through a number of different dances. Finally, the interactive experience challenges users to search through the video to hunt down hidden Takis chip bags within a timeline.

Each of the experiences centers around the high-energy brand tagline of “Are You Takis Enough?” and feature bags of Takis chips and high schoolers representing each chip flavor through different dance styles. With an aim of engaging younger customers, reports from the company state that the preliminary results of the campaign show that the advert strongly outperformed expected targets. In particular, it is reported that the 3D advert boasts a 7.7% engagement rate which is sure to lead to an increase in sales of Takis bags as well.

As Takis continue to embrace immersive media and work more with OmniVirt in the future, VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest so make sure to keep reading to stay up to date.

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Enjoy 360 Action in Mission: Impossible – Fallout’s new Ad Campaign

If there’s one thing an action packed film franchise like Mission: Impossible needs is an ad campaign to match. Back when  Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation launched the PR train went into overdrive with a VR installation at London’s Victoria Station. With Mission: Impossible – Fallout due for release Paramount Pictures has teamed up with OmniVirt for a 360-degree advertising campaign.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

The 360 video advert takes viewers behind the scenes as Hollywood star Tom Cruise performs several stunts. Viewers sit right next to Cruise while he pilots a helicopter through narrow passageways and provides commentary on the experience alongside the film’s director, Christopher McQuarrie.

The footage gives a much more realistic sense of the dangers faced by Cruise as he performs his own stunts, aiming to get that authentic look and feel that can’t be achieved via stunt doubles and green screen effects.

“We continue to see top-tier film studios use 360° VR in their marketing efforts to help bring their story alive. For the Mission: Impossible campaign, bringing viewers behind the scenes to see how stunts are performed using 360° video makes for a visceral, exciting experience. We’re thrilled to work with Paramount Pictures as it positions itself as an innovative leader in this kind of storytelling,” says Brad Phaisan, CEO of OmniVirt in a statement.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

OmniVirt is a 360-degree, virtual reality (VR) advertising company that’s been employed by global brands for a number of different ad campaigns. These have included a 360-degree promotional video for Disney’s Aladdin stage show, a Pitch Perfect 3 AR Ad Campaign for Universal Pictures, as well as partnering with companies like EasyJet and Jaguar.

To see the 360-degree video of Mission: Impossible – Fallout then follow this link. The video can be controlled via a mouse, the WASD keys or the arrow keys. If you happen to be on mobile then you can use a headset like Google Cardboard for a more immersive experience. For any further updates from OmniVirt, keep reading VRFocus.

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Disney Decide They’ve Never Had A Friend Like 360°, Team With OmniVirt For Aladdin Promotion

Virtual reality (VR) advertising platform have teamed up with media behemoth Disney to help promote the Broadway musical version of Disney’s Aladdin by using a 360-degree video.

Disney and its agency Serino Coyne have worked with OmniVirt to distribute 360° advertisements to various media sites in order to target Broadway audiences.

Disney And OmniVirt - Aladdin In 360

The 360° advertisement video puts viewers on stage alongside Aladdin and Genie during one of the show’s stand-out numbers, Friend Like Me Digital text overlays are placed over the 360-degree footage of Genie and Aladdin singing and dancing to the classic song.

The text will provide viewers with interesting facts and trivia about the show. For example, as Genie moves across the stage during Friend Like Me, he travels the equivalent of 24 basketball courts in eight minutes.

“Disney’s 360° experience is among the most smartly produced 360° content we’ve seen in the market – it takes full advantage of the content format and adds in digital flourishes that render for a magical experience,” says Brad Phaisan, CEO of OmniVirt.

Disney will be running banner ads that allow users to click through int the full 360-degree video experience as well as pre-roll units. The 360-degree video was produced by Koncept VR with OmniVirt powering the distribution of the ad units. The player embedded in the Disney website uses the OmniVirt VR player.

Omnivirt

Previously, Disney has used 360-degree video to promote another of its Broadway shows, placing a 360-degree video on the official Disney website to bring The Lion King show to life in a video that was also powered by OmniVirt technology.

OmniVirt have partnered with a number of brands for VR and AR advertising campaigns, while Disney have been increasingly involved in VR, with its research department showcasing breakthroughs in VR and mixed reality (MR) technology.

For future coverage of new and upcoming VR experiences, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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Wyoming Newspaper Introduces VR Adverts

In a world where traditional print media is struggling and ad-blockers have been rising in popularity, many businesses and brands are seeking new approaches to advertising and revenue generation. The Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming has turned to virtual reality (VR) advertising firm OmniVirt to offer 360-degree adverts.

The Casper Star-Tribune is a locally-based Wyoming newspaper that is working with OmniVirt to offer 360-degree video adverts to clients. The first of these is Edgeworth Real Estate Firm, who have produced a VR tour of a house on sale.

omnivirt casper star tribune advert

The 360-degree tour allows users to click through into different rooms and explore a full 360-degree view of the room. Reports have shown that consumers engage more with 360-degree video advertising than with traditional static advertising, with 360-degree images performing up to 300% better in getting users to click through to the advertised content.

“Our sales strategy is based on how well we can engage customers. Our client was excited to be the only realtor in Casper to offer such an experience. Even better, the client doubled his average CTR to 0.44% and the house was sold in under two weeks,” says Sean Johnson, Ad Director from The Casper Star-Tribune.

OmniVirt say that the advantage of its advertising platform is that it allows even small, local publishers such as the Wyoming Casper Star-Tribune can offers its clients new and engaging formats, such as VR and augmented reality (AR). The company has previously provided a platform for companies such as EasyJet and Jaguar to create VR advertising.

“More and more, we see publishers investing heavily in their O&O properties to decrease their reliance on social giants like Facebook and Snapchat. 360° advertising is one area publishers are investing in. It’s exciting to see smaller publishers like the Casper Star-Tribune capitalize on the trend of immersive content,” says Brad Phaisan, CEO of OmniVirt.

OmniVirt

The Casper Star-Tribune is planning to work with other clients such as auto dealers to launch other 360-degree video advertisements on its site and other online properties. VRFocus will continue to report on new developments in VR advertising.

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Jaguar and EasyJet Latest To Partner With OmniVirt

Many companies and brands are searching for new ways to engage with consumers through advertising, seeking new methods to attract attention. With the growth of virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video, companies such as OmniVirt are providing new platforms for advertising, and some of the latest firms to take advantage of this technology are EasyJet and Jaguar.

EasyJet and Jaguar are well-known companies who have become some of the latest to partner with OmniVirt in order to launch VR-enabled advertising campaigns using OmniVirt’s self-service advertising platform.

Advertising is a requirement for many companies in order to bring attention to new products or services, but such campaigns can e a significant cost, and many companies are beginning to see reductions in the benefit of traditional advertising methods.

OmniVirt previously released research that shows how 360-degree video and VR advertising increases consumer engagement. Tracking information from over 700 million adverts served, OmniVirt discovered that 360-degree images performed 300% better in enticing users to click-through to the advertised content than traditional 2D images.

Jaguar and EasyJet have begun using production agency MaramuraVR to customise 360-degree or VR assets on OmniVirt’s ad platform. The process involves uploaded 360-degree footage and adding interactive hotspots and choosing the type of ad. This makes the process of producing an ad a quick, easy and inexpensive process.

“We are seeing an uptick in customers looking to more easily create engaging experiences without heavy technology requirements. Customers, whether agencies or brands, want a seamless experience, especially especially when they’re testing out emerging formats for the first or second time.” notes Brad Phaisan, CEO of OmniVirt.

Omnivirt

Iván Minero of MaramuraVR notes, “The use of self-service platform was very easy for us, and let us set up an entire ad campaign with banner and landing scene. It was important to us to have a solution to set up campaigns and banners quickly that allow us to test and show demos to our clients, from which we could quickly iterate.”

for further news and coverage of VR advertising and other VR or 360-degree projects, keep checking back with VRFocus.