Big Brother Augmented Reality Retail

Celebrity Big Brother & Very.co.uk E-Commerce Virtual Reality Experience

The Brief

Very.co.uk wanted to utilise their partnership with Channel 5 and the Celebrity Big Brother house to provide a shop window for their target audience. Eye Revolution was briefed to provide interactive 360 images of 9 areas within the Big Brother house and create an interface that allowed viewers to click on the products and ultimately buy them at Very.co.uk.

The Challenges

In what was the biggest ever product placement deal in the UK, Very.co.uk put over 100 products into the Celebrity Big Brother house. Each 360 image had to have perfect clarity, so the product displayed beautifully, whether that was within a foot of the camera or 20 feet away. The interface needed to feel intuitive for the viewers to easily browse the shop, find products they liked, see information and ultimately click to buy at Very.co.uk.

The Execution

We worked with Very.co.uk’s visual merchandising team to dress the house ready for the the shoot. Once the house was prepared, we shot each of the 9 areas within a few hours. Back in the studio, post production on the images commenced. Simultaneously, we worked with Channel 5 to create an immersive interface which beautifully showcased the products, was easily navigated and minimised the number of clicks it would take for a viewer to buy. The controls were kept simple. We used subtle yet fun pink tags to indicate to the audience which products could be viewed and purchased. The viewer could look around each area, see a product which they liked, click the tag to find out more and then just one click took them to the buying page at Very.co.uk.

The Results

The virtual tour was a key part of the link-up campaign, and helped to directly drive sales:
• Very.co.uk’s sales page saw a three-figure percentage increase in sessions and a significant increase in conversion versus other non-traditional selling pages
• One product saw increased sales of 1038% (versus the week before) following the placement of the product in the task
• There was a 35% incremental impact on sales versus the category average for all Home & Furniture featured
• There was an 83% uplift in demand in the clothing category, and a 72% increase in sales of those products featured
* Overall sales of products featured in the Big Brother house increased by an average 20%.
(Source: Carat)

Awards

2014 UK Sponsorship Awards: winner of the Brand Sponsorship (under £75K) category
2014 Brand Republic Digital Awards: winner of the Retail and E-Commerce category