The Campaign

Our creative idea was simple – we couldn’t take our fans into the pits, so we took the pits to them. Whilst there is nothing new about a pit stop challenge, using the latest in multi-player VR technology allowed us to place our audience into an experience that would normally be inaccessible. The hyper-real environment ensured that our audience felt the excitement, pressure and adrenaline rush of the actual environment. By building in the team participation mechanic to the experience, we could ensure that we tapped into the competitive nature of Australians and built an experience like no other in the Clipsal compound.

Execution

Users experienced a four-player VR pit stop scenario, with the environment mirroring Clipsal 500. Extensive time was spent with DJR Team Penske pit stop crew to ensure the detail was true to life. Participants experience a realistic replica of the actual team livery, car design, garage and surrounding area. The player ran a training session in a Shell branded space before moving to Clipsal 500’s pit lane, where two pit stop challenges –a wheel change and a break-pad change took place in the fastest time possible. This was supported with live recorded sound effects typical of a real race, including driver and team member voiceovers. Upon completion, a SMS was sent to each of the four entrants with a personalized, mixed reality video of them taking part with their team alongside share buttons for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as well as the option to download and save on their phones.

The VR had strong impact with the target audience with anecdotal feedback from supercars being incredibly strong. In terms of core results the activity secured the following: • VR Entries: 801 • Organic Social reach: 1,250,000 • Twitter post reach: 425,600 • Twitter Interactions: 563 • Participants enjoyed it so much they ranked it on average 9.2/10 • 97% said they would tell someone about it, 77% said they would share the content sent to their mobiles • 35% of those who participated in the experience said they had never used the fuel before and 97% of those said they would now consider using it. In addition, the activity was promoted on owned social media channels via a series of videos. Despite being geo-targeted to just Adelaide, we were able to secure the following results for the activity. • Facebook post reach: 275,029 • Facebook interactions: 38,720

The Situation

In an Australian first, the Shell VR Pit Stop allowed up to four players working as a team to simultaneously replicate the speed and precision required during a real life high-pressure Supercars pit stop. Specific focus on realistic gameplay ensured a true-to-life adrenalin-inducing experience. The activation was built inside a 5mx5m green screen room, with each player being filmed and receiving a personalized mixed-reality hype reel to share on social as they left the activation. The experience resulted in unpresented levels of engagement and social sharing for Shell at the V8 Supercars event.

The Strategy

We knew from market research that when our audience (males, 25+, love technology, see their car as an extension of themselves, frequently ‘treat’ their car) saw the relationship between Shell V-Power and motorsport they were more likely to trade up their fuel to Shell V-Power. With this in mind we needed to create an experience that encouraged the target audience to actively engage with the brand through its sponsorship of the team. The answer was to take a tried and tested engagement platform (the pit stop) and take it to the 21st century through VR. Whilst the experience was important – reach was always going to be limited therefore we needed to create a tool that encouraged social sharing and third-party advocacy. Our solution was to provide a fully custom mixed reality video that users were sent 10 seconds after completing the experience to drive to social channels.