2017 Promo & Activation

THE AUDI SANDBOX VR EXPERIENCE

Bronze Eurobest

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleTHE AUDI SANDBOX VR EXPERIENCE
BrandAUDI
Product/ServiceAUDI Q5 QUATTRO
Category A03. Cars & Automotive Products & Services
Entrant POL Oslo, NORWAY
Idea Creation POL Oslo, NORWAY
Media Placement MEDIACOM Oslo, NORWAY
Production MEDIAMONKS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Credits
Name Company Position
Thorbjorn Ruud POL Art Director
Petter Bryde POL Copywriter
Kjetil Botten Skogly POL Account Director
Emma Karlsson POL Account Manager
Ole Jakob Bøe Skattum POL Graphic Designer
Anna Adamson MediaMonks Stockholm Executive Producer Film
Sander van Wijk MediaMonks Stockholm Colorist
Tom Eriksen MediaMonks Stockholm Creative Director
Thomas Söderlund MediaMonks Stockholm Technical Director
Bo Gustafsson MediaMonks Stockholm Associate Producer
Fredrik Broander MediaMonks Stockholm VR Creative
Johan Anstérus MediaMonks Stockholm Producer
Jeroen Akershoek MediaMonks Stockholm Unity developer
Tom Rijpert MediaMonks Stockholm Director
Niklas Jakobsson MediaMonks Stockholm Line producer
Jo Eken Torp MediaMonks Stockholm Director Of Photography
Jordy van der Bergh MediaMonks Stockholm Editor
Eric Thorell MediaMonks Stockholm Sound Designer
Edward Björner MediaMonks Stockholm Sound Designer
Arvid Björn MediaMonks Stockholm Visual Effects Supervisior
Johan Boije MediaMonks Stockholm Visual Effects Supervisior

The Campaign

We created an in-store installation that lets people test-drive the new Audi Q5 in VR on a self-made track made out of sand. We invited people to enter a purpose-built sandbox to create their own driving environment by moving sand to form lanes, jumps and mud pools. The physical sandbox is turned into a virtual playground using a depth-sensing camera that renders peoples’ creation into a 3D environment. People could then step an Audi Q5 driving simulator with an Oculus Rift headset to drive around their own sandbox in a real-time VR experience. The driving experience is designed to simulate a real-life drive, complete with feedback from the Audi Q5 steering wheel and the actual car (engine) sounds. The key drivers for the campaign are a one-minute TVC and two-minute making-of video in which the concept and technology are introduced to drive people to Audi dealers and share the experience.

Campaign Success

Enter Sandbox was designed as a traveling in-store installation with a transportable 400-kilo sandbox from which participants can create their own test-drive environment. The physical sandbox is scanned in 3D based on 200,000 measure points, using a Kinect camera and a HTC Vive Lighthouse tracking system. To capture the sandbox at such detail, the sandbox is bombarded with bursts of infrared light that are captured by the Kinect camera to measure the height differences relative to the camera. This height-depth-scan is then rendered into a 3D model of the sandbox, which users can explore in VR in an Audi Q5. To include the tools and toys participants could move around the sandbox, we created 3D replicas that would replace the real-life toys inside the VR experience. Finally, when participants uncovered the floor of the sandbox, this empty space was replaced by a pool of water in the VR experience.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Enter Sandbox itself became “the most successful campaign from Audi Norway ever” (Tommy Jensen of Audi Norway). The installation is now moved to Audi's museum and visitors' center in Ingolstadt, and tested by thousands each month. Enter Sandbox also got massive media coverage in Norway and in the global market, with features by Wired, TopGear, PSFK, FastCompany and Deutsche Welle. Deutsche Welle shared the campaign on Facebook. This video alone amassed over 4 million views and 50.000 unique shares in a month. Over 49,218 people shared the campaign on their Facebook profile.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Enter Sandbox is an in-store activation like no other. For the first-time ever, visitors of Audi dealers get to create their own test-drive environment in physical sandbox, and then drive around in VR while sitting inside an Audi Q5 driving simulator. The campaign serves as a promotion of the new Audi Q5 but also Audi as an innovative brand at large.

To actualize Audi’s ambition of making technological innovation part and parcel of the communication itself, the idea emerged to combine the traditional product demonstration of a test drive with the new and exciting possibilities offered by VR. The experience itself is based on a powerful nostalgic premise that unlocks the inner-child in all of us: Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could drive a car around the sand tracks you used to make as a kid? To make this into an experience the whole country could get excited about, we had to achieve two things: 1) the installation had to be transportable so it could travel around Norway 2) and the experience itself had to be shareable in the form of a video so that more people could share in the excitement.