How can people appreciate a vehicle interior they can’t experience yet? Ford challenged Imagination to create an activation that would deliver the emotional truth at the heart of the new 2020 Explorer, and also allow people to experience its interior prior to launch.  

​

Two facts informed the strategy:

1) getting people to experience automotive product is the best way to engage hearts and minds and create recall (Baumann, Hamin and Chong 2014);

2) Americans left more than half their vacation time unclaimed last year. (Glassdoor)

​

The insight
Americans are missing time for themselves and with their family, who are growing up fast.  Explorer helps address this. Explorer can inspire reconnection both with yourself and your family as you share the adventures and country you love.

​

Solution

Explorer already has great recognition, we decided to use that to attract consumers to come as close as possible to the experience of being in the new Explorer 2020.

​

We created a 4D VR experience, syncing the real-life movement of the Explorer on a physical track to the movements in VR. The physical track used ramps, banked turns and a motion platform, delivering realistic haptic feedback into the virtual space. Every bump, dip and stop came from the Explorer itself. You could hear and feel the vehicle's engine as it ascended ramps or its wheels crunched the gravel.

​

Results

·       World first 4D synced in-car VR experience

·       95% positive social sentiment

·       The Drum Marketin Award 2019 for Best Use of Consumer Insight

​