Tech Case: Jaguar I-PACE

Tech Case: Jaguar I-PACE

The ground-breaking project to launch the first Jaguar electric concept vehicle, the I-PACE was a collaboration between Jaguar and London-based global creative agency Imagination, working with REWIND, a UK immersive production studio, supported by HTC VIVE‚Ñ¢ and Dell.

The project delivered the world’s first live cross-continent VR product launch reveal which allowed the audience to explore the I-PACE concept in a 3D social space.

Sixty-six guests – 54 in LA, 12 in London – including journalists and celebrities like James Corden, Michelle Rodriguez and David Gandy – simultaneously experienced the car, both inside and outside, under the virtual guidance of its designer Ian Callum who was live-streamed onto the VR platform.

With a 360° background view of Venice Beach, morphing into a virtual desert, the social VR capability allowed the audience to interact across continents, a world-first for an externally facing consumer launch.

“We had looked at VR previously; however, in the past we didn’t think the technology was strong enough,” says Imagination’s Head of Automotive, Ross Wheeler.

“But when the time came to tell the story to journalists around the world, it was a no-brainer, it had to be VR. We were telling a tech story and virtual reality was high on the news agenda, so we knew that anyone sharing this type of news could receive exponentially higher interest using virtual reality. VR quickly became the perfect channel and technology for us to use.”

High quality was key for the project, so a very high level of technology was required. The merging of high-spec technologies and the powerful results achieved – news of the launch reached 263m people around the world and the launch video quickly accumulated 1m YouTube views – showed what was possible using VR technology.

Achieving the quality required by the client and world media was key, rendering the high spec car design in sufficiently high definition to provide the wow factor, as well as allowing the audience to get as close as possible to experience the design details.

The feedback at the launch and in the media exceeded the entire team’s targets and expectations.

Read the full case study on Immerse UK here.