Approach
To celebrate Tankfest 2015, Google partnered with Wargaming and The Tank Museum to create the UK’s first virtual reality military museum exhibition and the largest-ever VR event, showcasing some of the world’s most-recognisable tanks in action through Google Cardboard.
Goals
Create customer awareness of Wargaming and its products
Drive innovation in online and offline marketing activity
Increase interest in Google's collaboration with UK cultural institutions
Results
Tankfest marked the UK’s largest-ever VR event to date
10,000+ Google-branded Cardboard units were dispensed over the course of the two-day festival to enthusiasts from all over the world
The 360° video content was promoted to Wargaming’s 2 million YouTube subscribers and 112m customers worldwide and has earned more than 500,000 views to date across all platforms, making this the most successful VR initiative for the game producer
Bringing history to life, the initiative was the largest UK VR event to date and the first experience produced for a British military museum. Google worked in conjunction with The Tank Museum and Wargaming to facilitate unprecedented access to rare and historic war machines.
Branded Cardboard units from the event were also shared with 50 MPs in a special July 2015 Parliamentary session showcasing the best of British future technology.
Spotlight: Tankfest 2015 Wargaming is the title sponsor for Tankfest, an annual event held at The Tank Museum in Bovington, UK. As part of this event, Google and Wargaming co-hosted a stand where tank enthusiasts could see a demo of the VR experience using branded Cardboard units.
At the stand, fans could explore VR experiences of five different tanks, including the "óFury' tank from the 2014 film starring Brad Pitt, and the jewel of the museum's collection, the Tiger 131, one of the few remaining operational German Tiger tanks to have seen combat in World War II.
After enjoying the demo, visitors were handed their own branded Google Cardboard to revisit the experience at home or share with their friends and family. The videos were also promoted on Wargaming Europe's Google+ page.
Tank-focused Google Cardboard experiences have a global audience: with a collection of more than 300 vehicles, the museum is regarded as the best in the world and attracts worldwide interest in the collection which includes the first tank, Little Willie, as well as the feared German Tiger tank and the modern Challenger 2.
VR Content The VR content was developed by Wargaming working closely with The Tank Museum, marking the first-ever virtual content collaboration for the museum.
Not only did the Cardboard app create an immersive experience of the tanks in motion, it also afforded enthusiasts an intimate view inside war machines otherwise off-limits to the public.
