British Media Awards: Video Project of the Year

Winners

Gold 

What Will Your Day Bring, The Distillery London 

Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and International Citizen Service (ICS) wanted to use the medium of film to ignite interest and inspire UK-based 18-25 year olds to sign up for volunteer placements. Working with The Distillery London, the theme centred around an immersive VR idea: a full 360 experience that would take the audience right into the heart of a tiny village in Kenya through the eyes of one young volunteer.

To highlight the contrast between the volunteer’s homelife and the Kenyan adventure, the 360 format "split the world" into a 180x180 experience. Looking one way you were on a park bench in Newcastle with your friends whereas looking the other way you were on a dusty street in a Kenyan village helping to clean waterways.

The targeted audience were young and potentially many would be VR-native, so VSO had to make sure they would watch the whole film by creating an authentic piece of work without any gimmicks.

Many test viewings were conducted in VR headsets to get the pace right, ensuring the viewer was both fully immersed and had time to take in the duality of worlds, but without becoming overwhelmed with the split frame.

Levels of engagement with the target audience were high. The video reached more than half a million people on ICS’ Facebook page and during a two-month recruitment campaign, the video generated 775,000 impressions, 11,000 unique views and 154 volunteer applications.

Joe Media

Shortlist 

• Fanta’s The Rush Show with, Joe Media
• Women’s Voices, Alpha Grid and KPMG
• The Future of Capital, Alpha Grid, UBS Investment Bank and Financial Times