Execution

Our time frame was approximately 9 weeks from the initial brief and kick-off for the first instalment of the project. April 2017 - September 2017 - WebGL Research & Development 18th September 2017 - Initial Brief & Kick-off for Phase One 21st October 2017 - First Draft Review 10th November 2017 - Final Review & User Acceptance Testing 21st November 2017 - Phase One Launch (online) 22nd November 2017 - Phase Two Kick-off (for update of experience) 9th December 2017 - Initial Lookdev sign-off 15th February 2018 - Final Review & User Acceptance Testing 28th February 2018 - Phase Two Launch 1st March 2018 - Phase Three Kick-off (for update of experience) 9th April 2018 - First Draft Review 16th May 2018 - Final Review & User Acceptance Testing 21st May 2018 - Phase Three Launch

The Campaign

Today’s customers are expecting more engaging, fully-integrated online experiences, so relying on still images or videos is insufficient. The automotive industry features some of the most complex, customisable products out there, so an accessible product visualiser in the online world is essential. We wanted to create something that provided a feature-rich, interactive experience that users could access anytime, anywhere. To achieve this we took the idea of Showroom 360 and experimented with a lightweight, online iteration. We refined our technology from the first WebGL configurator we developed, to create an even higher-performing experience. With this configurator Toyota has the opportunity to provide immersive experiences that were once only available in-store with Showroom 360. The key to this project’s innovation is how lightweight it is, without sacrificing any visual fidelity, so that it can be accessed on phones or tables and loads quickly, even on a 3G network.

Creative Execution

This experience runs through the browser and is accessible by any internet-connected device. Much like the in-store experience, the vehicle is fully configurable in realtime with options to select grade, colour, engine and transmission, as well as 360 camera viewing capacity within a photoreal environment. It is fully integrated with Toyota’s pricing calculator and ecosystem so that once the car is configured the user can discover the real cost of their vehicle, as well as the location of the nearest dealerships, check local stock, book a test drive, or even share their configuration on social media. It uses WebGL to render the vehicle and environment data in realtime within the browser. To run seamlessly, we use our proprietary scanning technology, which captures real-world environments in compressed 3D models with extraordinary detail, as well as InstaLOD and DracoCompression to reduce the size of CAD data and textures. We are constantly innovating with WebGL, improving visuals whilst reducing load times and boosting performance. Using this technology, each phase of the project has seen reductions in CAD data size with the final output being only 3% of the original size, massively improving the quality of the experience across the board.

This experience is game-changing for automotive marketing, delivering deeper levels of immersion and engagement for customers online. With an average user time of 4:30 and a 48% conversion rate (a significant increase) we fully expect WebGL configurators to become the new standard for the automotive industry and beyond. The potential for this technology exceeds automotive and could be used for any kind of visualisation tool. Importantly, the configurator is highly scalable as demand grows; it was built to be future-proof. More vehicles can be included to accommodate the entire Toyota range as well as many more environments.The experience can be linked to Salesforce, dealership tools or any other business and technology platform or database, and can even be used for Web VR as the technology improves. Every automotive company is looking for a way to stand out online, and this experience does that, now and into the future.

Our WebGL configurator is one of the world’s first browser-based, lightweight, ultrafast-loading configurators of its kind. With intensive research and development over 6 months we leveraged the cutting-edge WebGL framework to develop a highly engaging online experience that is fully-configurable and explorable in 360 degrees. The visualisation has photorealistic quality, and the user has complete flexibility to access it from any device due to its responsiveness to screen size and smart loading techniques. Traditionally, realtime browser-based experiences are either fast-loading, or photorealistic, or run smoothly on low-end devices like mobiles/tablets - with this unprecedented experience we have achieved all three.