philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Post Dives Into Virtual Reality With Fruity Pebbles Pre-Roll Push

What truly sets Pebbles' effort apart from other marketers' attempts at VR marketing is that it's a more guided, deliberately organized experience. Whereas many VR experiences "drop the user into an environment and let them explore" for an unlimited amount of time, Pebbles created an edited ad featuring 360 visuals, according to Brian Hurley, creative lead at agency Public Works. Few other brands have limited themselves to shorter VR ads in order to complement users' real-life experiences, Mr. Hurley claimed.

Pebbles' Senior Brand Manager Oliver Perez said, "A bowl of Fruity Pebbles creates this kind of overload sensory experience, and VR does that exactly. That was kind of the parallel for us."

the ad's two distribution platforms -- applications called VirtualSky and StartApp -- require the user to wear a VR headset before the pre-roll content launches. Upon opening the apps, users are instructed to tilt their phone and place it into the a VR headset. Only then will the VR content be "triggered," Mr. Klein said.

Both VirtualSky and StartApp use heat-tracking technology that records exactly where in a VR ad viewers are looking at a given time, allowing publishers to use that information as they further develop ads.

See the full story here: http://adage.com/article/media/post-dives-virtual-reality-fruity-pebbles-spot/304806/