Sharks
in the desert

INTRODUCING the Gear VR to Australia

The problem with promoting a product like Samsung's Gear VR was that it's all about the experience - you really need to try it for yourself to understand what all the fuss is about. 

We started with a brief to create a unique piece of content for the Gear VR - something that would really show off the potential of the product, where the action could be happening above, below or even behind you. 

So we travelled to Port Lincoln, South Australia, and dropped a 360 degree camera rig below the waves and into the home of one of the ocean’s most feared predators - the great white shark. Limited to just a single day of shooting, we had to hope that the sharks - who don’t really respond well to direction - would come to the party. 

Luckily we managed to capture some incredible footage, including a shot where one shark bit our camera, giving us a fascinating and unnerving view - in full 360 - from within the shark’s closing mouth. 

Now that we had our content, we needed to share it with as many people as possible. We were looking for a setting that would prove that this product really could make you feel like you'd stepped into another world. 

To help bring this to life, we travelled to Alice Springs, Central Australia, and in a small shopping centre in the middle of a town surrounded by desert, we opened up a dive shop. And as curious passers-by poked their heads into the store, we gave them the chance to experience an incredible underwater dive - even though they were 1200km from the nearest ocean.

And the resulting content took this story to a much wider audience. It was shared 10,000 times within hours of launch, and has attracted more than 3.000 comments - with 98% positive sentiment. To date, the video has been watched more than 1.8 million times.

Awards

• Silver - Spikes Asia - Media

• Bronze - Spikes Asia - Media

• Bronze - Adfest - Internet film

• Bronze - AWARD - Outdoor digital

• IAB Creative Showcase winner