British Airways help public make ‘US trip a reality’ in cool virtual reality stunt

Passers-by were transported from the streets of Europe to the States in a virtual reality stunt from British Airways.

Taking the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset outdoors, the airline wanted to encourage members of the public to ‘make [their] US trip a reality’, using pre-filmed footage including ice skating in New York, rodeo bull riding in Texas and running along the coast in LA.

This video highlights the campaign, showing the technology (which I LOVE) at work:

For completeness and whilst I’m on the subject, I’ve also been getting involved with virtual reality PR recently, helping to promote the work of new-ish client, VR specialists Visualise.

In a similar campaign I meant to highlight on PRexamples.com from early December, Visualise worked with global travel agent Thomas Cook to deliver in-store virtual reality experiences, giving holidaymakers the chance to ‘look before you book’, or, as the Mail Online’s Vicky Woollaston better punned it, ‘try before you fly’.

Take a look at this in this teaser video, which includes a helicopter tour of Manhattan:

http://vimeo.com/112802662

I know it’s a VERY PR to get unreasonably excited about how new(ish) tech can impact marketing, but having seen a big increase in brand interest since Facebook bought Oculus, the way virtual reality can showcase products and services to clients in an evermore-accessible way is, I think, something to get excited about.

Spotted on: Creative Guerilla Marketing

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