The North Face is introducing a virtual reality experience in collaboration with the cinematic company, Jaunt, to transport customers to some of America’s natural wonders, like Yosemite National Park and Utah’s Moab desert.
The outdoor brand that already celebrates thrill-seeking mountaineers, is brining us a fully immersive experience that will allow shoppers to explore the terrain and scale a rock wall with professional climbers Cedar Wright and Sam Elias.
Every brand wants to forge an emotional connection with its customers. Our brand mission is to inspire a life of exploration, so we felt like this was a great way to enhance our storytelling, use technology and transport people to the outdoors,” Eric Oliver, director of digital marketing at The North Face, said to Digiday.
The virtual reality project uses a Google Cardboard headset to create a seamless 360-degree visual and audio experience of the beautiful landscapes. SXSW Interactive 2015 visitors can receive an exclusive sneak peek of the content on Google Cardboard by visiting the Google Fiber Space at SXSW.
Launched last year, Google Cardboard brings rich and immersive VR content to people from their own mobile devices in an affordable and accessible way.
It’s impossible to put the headset on and not smile — I think this is a testament to how real the experience is and how well it connects with our inner need to adventure and explore.
“Working with The North Face to capture the remarkable beauty of our national parks has been one of our favorite and most powerful projects to date,” said Jens Christensen, CEO of Jaunt. “We are creating an entirely new medium for entertainment and the content we’ve captured in Yosemite and Moab are perfect examples of just how transformative cinematic virtual reality can be.”
In addition to a sneak peek at SXSW, The North Face VR experience will debut at select The North Face retail locations this month, starting in Chicago and then rolling out to New York and San Francisco. The North Face cinematic VR debut will be available for download by the public starting March 16 (jauntvr.com/content).
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