We loved Untitled Project‘s 360 VR campaign which they put together to showcase Scoot‘s Boeing 787 Dreamliner. As their immersive project featured in our ‘Best 360 Video Campaigns: Travel’ episode we thought that we’d take the opportunity to ask them a few questions about the amazing 360 video marketing campaign they released on December 13th 2017.

Tell me a bit about Untitled Project. What are your main objectives as a company?

We are a talented team of creative people from a wide range of backgrounds and visual disciplines. We have one main objective that brings us together; we live to create.

We treat each project as a fresh canvas with no preconceptions; we find the most creative use of technology to connect with your audience, and we get your story across.

We are lucky to have worked on many award-winning projects and have animators, projection mappers, video directors, 3D modelers and classically trained artists on our team, ready to start work on any exciting brief that comes through the door.

How did the opportunity to work with Scoot come about?

We were nominated for a prestigious marketing award and the Marketing Director from Scoot airlines was blown away by the work we submitted. We had submitted the Singleton VR experience and this created a photo real CGI landscape based on the highlands of Scotland. The opening shot saw the user soaring through the clouds and this resonated with the Scoot team and needless to say we won the award and ourselves a fantastic new client!

Why did you decide to create a 360 VR experience to take people on a tour of Scoot’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner?

Scoot were merging with Tiger Airlines and wanted to show off their new direction and their array of Dreamliner aircraft. It was a simple and fun way to show the three cabin offerings they sell: Scoot Economy, ScootBiz, Scoot in Silence.  

They also had a road show travelling to Southeast Asia and wanted a killer digital experience as the centerpiece to really immerse people in their brand, and the Dreamliner itself.

Why did you decide to incorporate 3D animations into the immersive experience?

Scoot is a budget airline with a difference; they’re a relaxed bunch of guys and gals with what they term ‘Scootitude’. We wanted to bring the crew’s relaxed, fun attitude to life with 3D characters that our incredible character designers made with our in-house motion capture system.

How long did this project take to complete from start to finish?

This project took three months from start to finish. This was the time we spent scanning and recreating the plane in 3D from the photogrammetry data, 3D animation, spatial sound design, through to post production and event rollout.

Were there any challenges you met along the way?

Challenges are a part of life here at Untitled; we break new ground everyday.

Creating a full 3D mixed reality film had so many layers to execute. The challenges we faced included indoor photogrammetry (rebuilding the plane from photographic data in 3D), extensive stitching and cleanup (cameras don’t like to stitch up close), through to writing a spatial audio player from scratch…there were a lot of challenges!

We work with talented writers and producers to really help the creative process. This ensures the tonality is right from the get-go, and the end result speaks for itself.

Do you believe a 360 VR experience can enable customers to connect better with a brand? What are the main advantages over more traditional formats?

We have done several brand stories in VR, and each time the results astound me. We have seen sales boom and social engagements go off the chart via 360 social content. It’s much more than a gimmick. It drives sales, and predictably so.

When a brand creates a well made piece of immersive content – something with a genuine heart – people listen.  

We find by mixing the senses – smell, taste, 3D spatial audio and killer visuals – the brand message is heard loud and clear. For experiential marketing its an absolute must.

When Scoot came to us for their activation we didn’t just sell them something that would be used once, like a single-use piece of content skewed towards what we wanted to make, instead we decided to dig a little deeper and build them something with legs.

We created a ninety second piece of content that could be broken down into three pieces relating to the three different offerings / tiers.

We then made a bespoke, fuss free app that brand ambassadors could demonstrate the most appropriate piece of content to each audience cohort. Highflying business types were taken on Scootbiz, families experienced Scoot Economy, and so on. After each piece, users could hand the headset back or dive into the other cabins.

This cut down the session times significantly, raising the number of active participants in any given session.

This content was then refactored into three social posts, used on Facebook 360 and YouTube 360. This meant the three stories could be used in programmatic marketing, pushing economy to families, and business to management types via their interests and likes.

This was then translated into six further languages, by the time we had created the translated content, its players and posts for YouTube and Facebook, this one piece of killer content had spawned 27 highly engaging social posts that were hugely successful in re-launching their brand in any given market.