Durovis Dive
Land Rover
Issue 35 | June 2015
Agency
LIDA
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Nicky Bullard Creative Director, Copywriter Michael Poole Creative Director, Art Director Nigel Clifton
Production Team
Senior Developer Stephen Chan Tech Director Tony Dong Account Director Richard Spear Senior Account Director Sam Ellis Project Manager Garry Hodges Strategy Director Jamie Chadwick
Date
January 2015
Background
The New Land Rover Discovery Sport was revealed in September 2014. But it wasn't in UK showrooms until 22nd January 2015. How could Land Rover dealers show the car to prospective customers before they actually had the car?
Idea
New technology was used, Durovis Dive, to bring the New Land Rover Discovery Sport to life in showrooms. Retailers clipped an iPhone (with pre-loaded app) into a simple, inexpensive headset. This made it incredibly easy to give customers a VR tour of the new vehicle. When they pointed the headset at a marker, the New Land Rover Discovery Sport popped up before their eyes. This wasn't your average augmented reality, it was so realistic that some people flinched as doors opened. Customers could walk around it and see it from every angle, inside and out.
Results
Each customer spent an average of 8 minutes 52 seconds immersing themselves in the New Land Rover Discovery Sport. The technology helped Land Rover to deliver 4,000 customer orders before the vehicle went on sale on 22nd January. 80% of people said that they told friends and family about the virtual experience.
Our Thoughts
Here’s Land Rover telling their customers that they are as tech savvy as anyone in the auto industry, bringing lustre to the brand with an idea that would have cost very little. AR and VR have been embraced by the motor trade with expensive headsets (Oculus Rift) and cheap headsets (Google Cardboard) all being pressed into service to show off the vehicle. What we liked about this was it was an answer to a real problem. Customers will have read about the new car, would have seen pictures of the new car in the press, but couldn’t actually get up close and personal.
We have featured Samsung’s Gear VR on pages 52–53 but all too soon this sort of 360-degree experience will be commonplace. Good for Lida in being early adopters.