| Title | LIVING WITH LAG |
| Brand | UMEÅ ENERGI/UME.NET |
| Product/Service | BROADBAND LAG SIMULATION |
| Category |
A01. Innovation |
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Entrant Company
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ANR BBDO Stockholm, SWEDEN
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Advertising Agency
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ANR BBDO Stockholm, SWEDEN
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Media Agency
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MAXUS GLOBAL Stockholm, SWEDEN
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Production Company
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STOPP/FAMILY Stockholm, SWEDEN
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Production Company 2
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HARD HAT Stockholm, SWEDEN
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Credits
| Oskar Skott |
ANR BBDO |
Art Director |
| Stephanie Moradi |
ANR BBDO |
Copywriter |
| Daniel Åhlman |
ANR BBDO |
Copywriter |
| Andreas Lönn |
ANR BBDO |
Creative Director |
| Fredrik Pantzerhielm |
ANR BBDO |
Account Executive |
| Giustina Guariglia |
ANR BBDO |
Production Manager |
| Camilla Westman |
ANR BBDO |
Pr Manager |
| Anna Jensen |
ANR BBDO |
Planner |
| William Björnstjerna |
ANR BBDO |
Graphic Designer |
| Gabriella Karlsson |
Stopp Family |
Creative Director |
| Håkan Boqvist |
Stopp Family |
Developer |
| Anna Nauckhoff |
Stopp Family |
Producer |
| Lisen Stålberg/Olmert |
Stopp Family |
Head Of Interactive |
| Gustav Fromell |
Hard Hat |
Director |
| Johan Helmer |
Hard Hat |
Cinematographer |
| Jenny Hedberg |
Hard Hat |
Producer |
| Simon Vallin |
Hard Hat |
Editor |
| Anders Brandén |
Hard Hat |
Sound Engineer |
| Edward Björner |
Stopp Family |
Sound Design Arrangement |
| Annika Pehrson |
Stopp Family |
Grading |
The Brief
The local fiber broadband provider ume.net offers one of the world’s fastest internet connections. To highlight this, we performed an experiment that brought internet’s biggest disturbance to life - lag, a common symptom of slow connection.
In order to make it work, we needed to develop something that had never been built before. A lag machine. Influenced by Virtual Reality technology, we used an Oculus Rift as a foundation for the machine combined with a variety of other components. But instead of creating a virtual environment, we wanted to send a video feed of the real world into the device, in real time. At the time, the Oculus Rift did not exist in Sweden and was not publicly released. Still being a Kickstarter project (prior to the Facebook acquirement), we hade to order a Developer Kit 1 from the US. Since we wanted the device to take on a new form of functionality we hade to customize it ourselves. We read through numerous articles and posts of experiments and evaluated different languages like C++ and python before choosing our path.
Tools: Oculus Rift Developer Kit 1, Raspberry Pi, GoPro, Logitech webcam, noise-canceling headphones, wireless keyboard.
Engineering team: Stopp/Family AB
The innovation was developed as a part of an advertising campaign to increase awareness for the local broadband provider ume.net.We targeted an audience that suffers the most from internet disturbances; the early adopters of tech and gaming, and created the Living with Lag Experiment that combined a recurrent problem in their online life with state-of-the-art technology to demonstrate how reality would look like with slow internet connection.
We connected a webcam to a Raspberry Pi and with Python PyGame we saved a buffer of video frames from the camera to output in a side-by-side view for the Oculus Rift. For audio we used the ALSA Sound to perform a delayed output. The delay for both video and audio could be controlled by a wireless keyboard as with a few other effects including a buffer view that halts both video and sound output. Using noise canceling headphones enabled us to cancel out surrounding sounds. To make it portable we hooked up the RPi and the Oculus Rift to a battery pack and fitted the equipment in a tool belt. The experience of using the device ranged from being slightly cumbersome to a total distortion of all sense of direction and communication. By switching between different level of delay we could adapt the equipment to different tasks and prevent the user from getting used to a set delay. 2 units were developed for the experiment. The Oculus Rift is by no means our invention, but was customized to stretch the use of it beyond the initial functions to the extent that it was a ground-breaking marker in the technology scene.
The technology was developed solely for the purpose of launching a long-term concept for the local broadband provider ume.net in order to position them as an innovative company at the forefront of technology. It also exceeded all set communication and marketing goals. The goal to increase awareness by 5 percentage was exceeded by 40%, the goal to increase preference by 5 percentage was exceeded by 100% and the sales have already increased with 54%, exceeding the goal of 15% within six months.
Due to the tremendous attention that the campaign generated, Sales Managers at ume.net have been demonstrating the device at client meetings, local events and other sale-oriented exhibitions as a way to present and maintain the communication concept.
Within 24 hours, the experiment had over 1 million views and was featured on all major technology and gaming sites world-wide. A viral spread that generated both national and international recognition in all major news outlets. As of today, Living with Lag have generated over 5.6 millions views in 230 countries, 78 million impressions, 333,000+ social actions, and an earned media value of €3.3 million, exceeding the digital media investment by 21000%.