WAYMO 360 EXPERIENCE

TitleWAYMO 360 EXPERIENCE
BrandGOOGLE ARTS AND CULTURE
Product/ServiceINTERACTIVE EASEL
Category A04. 360° Videos
Entrant GOOGLE CREATIVE LAB London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation GOOGLE CREATIVE LAB London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production FRAMESTORE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Google Creative Lab Google Creative Lead

Background

Since 2009, during their early days at Google, Waymo have been developing self driving car technology. Today, their fully self-driving cars are on public roads. They use a range of technology to see, identify, predict and plan to ensure a safe ride. But only a handful of people can actually experience being driven by them. For everyone else it’s still difficult to feel comfortable with the idea of a self-driving car. Our brief was to help people understand the technology at the heart of a Waymo car, and build trust in fully self-driving cars.

Describe the creative idea

We created a way for anyone, anywhere, to experience how Waymo’s fully self-driving technology works, and to feel what it’s like to ride in one of their cars. The Waymo 360° Experience uses the YouTube 360° video format because it’s the perfect platform to see the world as the car sees it, demonstrating how the car processes data from all around it. The experience brings to life the technology Waymo uses, and – for the first time ever – they can then experience what it’s like to be a passenger. The journey was filmed on public roads, and the data visualization was created using raw information gathered on that journey.

Describe the strategy

Waymo is the first company to put fully self-driving cars on public roads. We created this experience to help the public understand and trust this groundbreaking new technology. One of the most effective ways to build understanding is to let people experience the technology themselves. Since Waymo’s sensors see all 360° around, we specifically chose the format of 360° video so viewers can fully see what Waymo “sees”. Viewers can then experience their first ride with Waymo. Our goal was to reach everyday people, particularly those with low awareness of self-driving technology. We focused paid, owned and earned media on the two largest platforms for 360° video: YouTube and Facebook. The video was launched to the press with the announcement that Waymo has now self-driven over 5M miles. This piqued interest and reinforced Waymo’s extensive driving experience.

Describe the execution

We filmed a self-driven journey around Phoenix, Arizona, then worked with Waymo engineers to visualize in graphics the live data captured from the drive. The 360° format helps people experience the car’s constant 360° field of view, whilst the graphics show what the car actually sees. But we also wanted to enable people to feel what it’s like to ride in one, so the film gets viewers as close to this experience as possible: sitting in the backseat as the car self-drives on public roads. We made the experience viewable across devices, and ensured the design and art direction worked well on all screen sizes. On mobile, viewers move their phones around to explore, or use a virtual reality headset like Cardboard for an even more immersive experience. If viewing on desktop, simply drag the video around your screen.

List the results

Within a week, the video had over 400k organic views and was featured in mainstream publications including Forbes, Reuters and the Washington Post & Local and national news on channels such as FOX & NBC. Results show an above-average audience retention rate for the majority of the video, with users making full use of the 360 degree functionality.