Thomas Cook Airlines is promoting its services with a real-time 360º Virtual Reality ‘Fantasy Flight’ allowing potential passengers to try before they fly – and offering them the chance to win a £3,000 Los Angeles holiday.
Best experienced using Google Cardboard via the YouTube app, viewers can change their perspective of Thomas Cook Airlines’ refurbished premium and economy class cabins in real-time by moving their headset/device around. The video features real pilots and cabin crew going about their normal duties while the cabin comes to life with characters connected to the new destinations.
If users explore thoroughly, they can find clues to three of the airline’s newest destinations, which could win them the Los Angeles trip.
Thomas Cook worked with digital creative agency Catch and virtual reality production specialist Visualise to put the Fantasy Flight together.
The latest campaign follows on from Thomas Cook’s Virtual Reality ‘Try Before You Fly’ campaign, which saw Visualise visit popular tourist hotspots including New York, Egypt and Singapore to capture the immersive VR experience that allows customers to experience a holiday destination from within selected Thomas Cook Concept Stores in the UK, Germany and Belgium.
Tom Morey, Senior Marketing Manager for Thomas Cook Airlines, said: “We’ve used recently-developed 360-degree video technology to open the doors of our great new cabins on our Airbus A330 fleet. By summer this year, we’ll be operating seven of these long haul aircraft on direct flights from Manchester to Miami, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Orlando and Las Vegas. Customers don’t have to wait and see how it looks, they can find out right now by interacting with these amazing videos.”
Henry Stuart, Founder & CEO of Visualise said: “This campaign highlights that travel companies are realising the potential that VR has when connecting with customers. The initial ‘Try Before You Fly’ destination campaign saw a 180% increase in NYC excursions booked after the VR launch, and we’re hoping that this campaign continues to build on that success.”
Jonathan Smith, founding partner at Catch Digital, added: “2016 is set to be virtual reality’s breakout year. This new technology is perfectly placed to highlight Thomas Cook Airlines’ new routes and high-end A330 aircraft. We had a lot of fun on the shoot with a 50+ strong crew of actors, airline staff and impersonators to bring the new destinations into the cabin, as well as providing clues which viewers can find to enter a competition to win a holiday to LA.”
The 360º VR film can be experienced at www.thomascookairlines.com/fantasyflight.
