Walt Disney World takes fans on 360-degree tour of attractions
The Walt Disney World Resort is exploring Facebook 360 video with fans, taking them on a tour around the resort to show its innovative offerings and inspire bookings.
The resort is known for its fantastical imaginations in technology and at its location, and its recent interactive video is a continuation of that value. The Facebook video takes followers on a tour of its parks in a virtual reality experience showcasing rides and various locations throughout the parks to tap into nostalgia or inspire new visits.
"For a brand like Disney, who has a strong background in brand activation, they might optimize based on people who are engaging with the ad."
"It creates an immersive experience, allowing their audience to feel as if they are in the park," said Susan Noonan, executive director, media and analytics at Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners, Sausalito, CA. "You can imagine as virtual reality becomes more pervasive people are going to expect that video will emulate the experience of being there as much as possible.
"Facebook is one of the top platforms for reaching millennial parents," she said. "Facebook's relatively new foray into video has been a great success, making them one of the top platforms for video consumption, and with very advertiser friendly tools that allow us to buy on the metrics we consider most important.
Disney video
Facebook?s 360 allows users to view footage in a new experience in which they can move their mobile devices around to view new angles in the video space. Walt Disney World?s video starts out with Goofy in the innovation lab ?goofing? around and accidently transports viewers in a trip around the parks.
Viewers were able to have an all around view while taking virtual journey on rides such as Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Princess Fairytale Hall, Jungle Cruise, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Rock ?N Rollercoaster, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safari and Test Track. The video shows short snippets of each location, where users can look around to see all angles.
Walt Disney World also shared a variety of other videos to excite fans into booking vacations. One video is a musical showing viewers the benefits of staying at a Walt Disney World Resort.
360 video popularity
GE, Disney, Saturday Night Live and Mountain Dew are among the slew of brands that have also made use of Facebook?s new 360 video feature, pointing to virtual reality's growing role in marketing (see more).
NBC also leveraged 360 video technology and a popular YouTube star for the debut of Heroes Reborn in an attempt to harness the growing interest in mobile video and unique content to standout in the fall television premiere frenzy (see more).
"It has to be content consumers care about," Ms. Noonan said. "Advertisers cannot choose the messages that are most important to us and hope consumers want to hear about new products or services or what makes us different.
"To be successful we need to understand what content we have that consumers will either enjoy or care to learn about and we must create or share accordingly," she said. "There also has to be value in the 360 view.
"Are our potential customers truly able to see things now, that they want to see, that enhances their experience? If it is just for the novelty of it, consumers will quickly lose interest."
Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer