Honda has supported the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation for over 30 years. This year, on top of a donation, Honda wanted to provide a special experience specifically for kids who are stuck in the hospital over the Christmas holidays. Since these kids are stuck in the hospital getting treatment, they don’t get to go outside and experience the Christmas holidays like other kids. The brief and objective were simple: create an experience that provides joy to the kids during the holidays which is an especially stressful time for kids in the hospital.

The Magic Snow Globe experience used VR to transport kids in the hospital to a winter wonderland. First, the kids were brought into a room with a shrinking machine and a magic snow globe. Then they were asked if they wanted to shrink down and go inside the snow globe. Then they had to put on the shrinking machine helmet – VR goggles designed to look like a fun helmet. Then they saw an animation that showed them being transported inside the snow globe. Inside the snow globe they could interact with all sorts of elements. They got to conduct an orchestra, make it snow, watch a fireworks display, and create a snow man. After the experience, they took off the helmet and found a surprise: a real version of the exact snow man they made inside the snow globe was waiting for them as a gift.

The target audience was kids stuck in the hospital during the holidays undergoing cancer treatment. We worked closely with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and CHOC Children’s Hospital to make an experience that would be appropriate for kids in the hospital. It’s hard for kids who are stuck in the hospital during the holidays, so we wanted to create something that transported them somewhere magical. A place where they could experience the magic of the holiday season, which they wouldn’t normally be able to experience at the hospital. We wanted to create something that would bring the kids joy and make them forget that they were in the hospital, so they could get back to just being a kid again. VR was the perfect platform for this idea because it allowed us to transport sick kids to a magical place without actually having to leave the hospital.

The Magic Snow Globe experience was available to children at the CHOC Children’s Hospital for the entire month of December. During this time, all the kids who were at the hospital got a chance to use the experience. On a more technical side, since we knew what room in the hospital the experience would be held, we tailored the VR experience to that. We painstakingly recreated the real room and real shrinking machine in virtual reality so when the kids were inside the VR snow globe and looked up they could see the shrinking machine towers and the hospital room ceiling. This made it feel even more like they were actually shrunk down and inside the real snow globe. Inside the VR snow globe experience, the kids got to create a snowman. They could choose between six different kinds of snowmen. So we had a whole bunch of presents with the different snowmen in it, and when we saw which snowman the kid made, we quickly grabbed the right present and placed it on the table so that the kid would be surprised when they exited the experience.

The impact the experience had on the lives of kids stuck in the hospital over the holidays is hard to measure with stats. Judging by the smiles on the kids’ faces, and on the faces of their parents watching their children experience joy, we believe we got the best results that we possibly could. Kids who are stuck in the hospital during the holidays dream of getting outside to play like normal kids. This experience created by Honda used virtual reality in a unique way to transport kids outside the hospital (without actually leaving the hospital) and into a winter wonderland inside a snow globe. The whole experience reinforced Honda’s tagline ‘The Power of Dreams’ and increased brand affinity because of all the lives the experience touched at the hospital.