By melding VR with live theater, we created an immersive experience. Punchdrunk produced an imaginative multidimensional landscape with a female representative – elegant and disarming — guiding participants to an obscure room. Inside the room—dimly lit and veiled in red curtains—participants were outfitted with Samsung Gear VR devices.

The rep describes a disturbing dream. She moves closer to make real contact, the soundscape builds, and she multiplies around the viewer. The curtains draw revealing an endless void, and a figure slowly approaching. He appears to be an old man, but his face is hidden. He almost touches you when the headset is removed. You turn to face the rep, but in her place is the old man from the dream.

Participants are escorted out thinking it is over, when they are unexpectedly met with a cleaner in the stairwell who calls their name and eerily professes, “We live in a dream.”

Our actress led hand-selected participants into a dimly lit 10’X10’ room veiled in red curtains. In the center was a chair where guests were seated with a Samsung Gear VR as the actress described her disturbing dream.

Reality began to blur as the cast of actors would enter the room through secret doors to surprise the viewer with real physical contact. The room in the VR was an exact replica of the room they were physically in and the cast was specially-casted for the intensity of the chilling experience.

We shot in a decrepit warehouse with a full green screen built around the demo room and the floor covered with water and fog. The content used CGI to multiply the actress and dramatize the old man’s appearance from the shadows.

We activated at handpicked locations to best reach our target audience: Cannes Lion, Samsung 837 and Art Basel.

Samsung and Punchdrunk successfully brought to life an unprecedented 4D interactive experience through VR. Our goal was to create a tech-driven story showcasing the future of VR as a medium and how Samsung’s portfolio of products and services is forging that path.

The intimacy of focusing on one participant at a time led to the experience becoming highly sought after. However, this was about more than the number of participants – it was about giving every participant a personal journey into the imagination of VR leaving them awestruck of what they had experienced.

Strong metrics and exhilarating reactions led to a high ROI:

-1,283 participants

-3,849 device interactions

-Over 14mm media impressions mentioning Samsung VR at Cannes

-1.8mm+ media impressions and 1.1mm+ social impressions specifically mentioning the experience

-Samsung owned 58% of the Cannes media/social conversation around VR

-Cool Hunting named it “One of Miami Art Week’s most important experiences”