In a South African alcoholic industry first, Distell and its African brand, Amarula, have created a virtual reality tour of Africa so that consumers can experience the continent’s open spaces, plentiful wildlife, beautiful people, and distinctive culture.
According to the brand’s global marketing manager, Mncedisi Junior Jekwa, virtual reality (VR1) is trending as the most exciting technology driving brand activity and the entertainment industry. He quoted Samsung’s S7 launch, CES 2016, Ridley Scott’s VR movie and the Oculus Rift fandom as leading the new wave.
And now joining the frontrunners is Amarula.
“Africa has always been rooted in the brand’s DNA. This exciting technology allows us to bring the Amarula story to life in a more visceral manner,’ Jekwa said. “We believe strengthening the link between Amarula and Africa will enable us to grow the brand further as the world is starting to look to Africa for creative inspiration.’
FCB Cape Town executive creative director, Mike Barnwell, said VR was chosen as the medium ahead of traditional channels as it was the perfect fit and vehicle for such an immersive experience.
“The technology itself was the creative treatment,’ Barnwell said. “It fitted the job at hand perfectly because it would allow Amarula to take consumers on a journey to locations they would probably never otherwise travel to, and allow them the opportunity to experience these as they would in real time.’
The three minutes 45 seconds 3D-360º experience will be rolled out using Samsung Gear VR headsets and Oculus Rift units around the world in travel retail, focusing on duty free shops in major airports.
The video unlocks the story of the product and how it is truly made from Africa; from the marula trees growing wild, to the maturation houses and eventual product experience – each scene offers the consumers a step in the Amarula brand story and the Amarula process.
A 2D-360º experience will also be available on Amarula’s YouTube channel and Facebook page so that consumers can immerse themselves in the majestic tour at their own leisure. View it in HD here.
Partnering with FCB Cape Town to produce the experience was Deep VR, a South African virtual reality film production company specialising in 360° video to be relived in 2D and 3D. It uses in-house design proprietary camera systems to capture spherical video content in a variety of environments.
“The shoot to capture the footage we needed took us two weeks but from conception to final product took just over five months, because the process of stitching the images together for VR is a lot more involved and labour intensive compared to traditional film,’ said Deep VR CEO, Ulrico Grech-Cumbo.
“If after experiencing Africa in 3D, consumers are unable able to make the trip to the continent, the best way to experience Africa is to taste it, with a tall glass of Amarula,’ Jekwa concluded.
Credits
Client: Distell
Brand: Amarula
General Manager for Amarula: Dino D’Araujo
Creative agency: FCB Cape Town
Executive Creative Director: Mike Barnwell
Creative Director FCB: Aaron Harris
Group Head and Senior Art Director: Dylan Davies
Radio and TV Producer: Ashleigh Jarratt
Group Account Director: Stephanie Binns
Virtual reality agency: Deep VR
CEO: Ulrico Grech-Cumbo
Director of Photography: Telmo dos Reis
Audio specialist: Samukelo Mahlalela
Additional information:
For FCB Cape Town producer, Ashleigh Jarratt, the exciting challenges had more to do with the nature of filming for VR versus filming for traditional television commercials.
“The first difference was that we couldn’t do a pre-production recce. Given the duration of the shoot and distances we needed to travel, we had to recce while on the shoot and then wait for the sun to align with our lighting requirements. That added on several long hours.”
“Also, I couldn’t create my usual production schedules and shot-lists as we were filming in nature and relying on the performance of wild animals, local villagers and unpredictable weather. It was a real hands-on experience and required a lot of flexibility and patience from all involved.
“As a producer, it was my responsibility to source the best director and crew, based solely on their experience with VR. Doing so, while absorbing all this new technical information and jargon, was rather daunting.
“Then, we had to get used to this very limited crew. On any given television commercial shoot, there’s a crew of 50. For the Amarula “Made from Africa’ VR, we were six – three crew and three agency. We had to perform many roles to keep the numbers down; it’s easier to hide six people from the 360º camera view than 50!
“Finally, on set for a TV sport, we have the luxury of instant playback for progress approval. However, with VR, we could only approve the scene from the point-of-view of your head being the lens before jumping out of frame and letting the magic happen while hiding around the corner.
“This meant very little control of depth, angle, lighting or movement of characters and it was crucial for the whole team to be aligned when visualising the shot before filming. At the end of the day, I’m exceptionally proud of what we achieved and thrilled to have learnt to work with an entirely new way of filming,’ Jarratt said.
“Each location for the VR was selected for a specific experience. The air balloon gave us height. The Savannah gave us space. There was the intimacy of being with elephants as they crowded around a watering hole,’ explained DeepVR CEO, Ulrico Grech-Cumbo.
“The camera was used to simply capture the scene in beautiful light and to do so as naturally and as authentically as possible. But we did record each of the scenes for longer than was needed for the main edit.
“Given the richness of each scene and how immersive each individual experience is, it made sense to allow the viewer an additional opportunity to explore each scene in more detail, as well as give them a choice of electing an experience appealing to them alone.
“The nature of VR filming requires us to set up our camera to get 360º views, trigger it and then hide from its view – and believe me, this camera sees everywhere.
“While in Botswana, we filmed the thunderstorm we use to open the VR. We did our set-up and then hid behind a small bush. About 10 minutes later I felt a rumbling through the ground and looked behind us to see two massive Red Hartebeest pre-occupied with each other but barrelling toward us.
“In a split second, we had to decide whether to stay still and hope they didn’t trample us, or make ourselves visible. They were almost on top of us when I jumped up and waved at them, and they changed direction just in time.
“In another example, FCB’s Stephanie Binns got gently tossed – yip, tossed – into a tree by a very large but tame elephant in Limpopo. That elephant’s baby also got playful during the marula tree shoot, backing up into me because it was bored.
“And then there were the logistics. In Botswana, the team had to drive through the famous Moremi Game Reserve on terrible roads in an open vehicle with suspension that was blown, for eight hours each way, to get close to Chief’s Island in the Okavango Delta, for a shot which would only last 20 seconds. That was the spirit of this shoot, we wanted the real thing and we worked hard to get it.’
