We wanted to create an enhanced immersive experience, one that would treat visitors not just to a sneak peek of the show, but give them the effect that they were actually visiting the Westworld park, by combining cutting-edge VR technology, a luxury physical setting and a live theatrical experience with actors acting as artificial hosts.

Our solution was a theatrical and VR experience that immersed guests in the world of Westworld, featuring live actors playing AI-guided hosts, and sets built to resemble a corporate outpost of the fictional Delos Corporation. In this way, guests achieved full immersion before then strapping on the VR headset and diving deeper into the storyworld.

At TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, and New York Comic Con, etched metal appointment cards were issued to a select list of guests, who could then visit at their appointed time and receive a personalized front of house theatrical experience before being guided into an 11-minute virtual simulation running on an HTC Vive.

Through a combination of live theater, custom installation, and virtual reality, guests were fully transported to the fictional resort to take part in a tale that begins seductively but ends in dystopian terror.

Nearly 2,000 people went through the experience. Their social shares, as well as copious amounts of A-List press coverage (Variety, VentureBeat, Mashable, Business Insider), yielded a tremendous number of PR impressions for Westworld and HBO.

Specifically, the activation reached 4,846,275 impressions on Twitter and 143,585 on Instagram. Experiential impressions reached 180,000 at NYCC and 5,000 at TechCrunch.

Above all, after the experience, fans weren’t talking about what they saw, or any specific piece of technology. They were sharing stories about their visit to Westworld, a unique event that helped contribute to a pre-premiere campaign that saw Westworld become the most-watched first season of an HBO original series ever.