Most of the recent news out of Cheil Worldwide’s Barbarian Group has concerned departures and restructuring as pretty much everyone who helped build the agency including its founder, owner, CEO and CCO either announced their plans to leave or got cut by the parent company.
But the agency is still here, and they’re still doing work.
Here, for example, is the latest project for Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi-based travel company whose social/digital business went to Cheil and Barbarian last summer. The “Reimagine” film was created in partnership with prodco MediaMonks.
It’s basically a 4-minute tour of an Etihad interior complete with private rooms and the Very Important conversations happening within them.
In the press release, GCD Adam Lau said: “Storytelling in new mediums always brings out the best in our agency. VR was a natural fit for a brand that prides itself on experience.” The narrative in this case involved Kidman taking a flight somewhere and having a very luxurious time in the process.
Seems the airline aims to differentiate itself by doubling down on VR in the form of 300,000 viewers shipped as part of a partnership with ad-oriented virtual reality company Dodocase.
MediaMonks global director of VR Ola Björling added: “As the most multidisciplinary medium there is, virtual reality relies more heavily on craft and execution than anything before it. We believe the display of artistry in every facet of this production is setting a new benchmark for live-action VR.”
So that wasn’t an ad. It was the world’s first “full immersive virtual reality film” starring an Oscar winner. But where will people watch this, and how will it convince them to fly Etihad?
Good questions, all. Right now we’re just focused on that massive credits list.