Words, photos, and even videos can’t deliver the thrill of driving a Porsche, so we decided to use virtual reality to allow our aspiring owner to experience the feeling of getting behind the wheel.

We created a Porsche virtual reality driving experience using 360 camera rigs custom-designed for Porsche. A series of live-action virtual reality experiences mixed with computer graphics took drivers through the full Porsche experience, from the workings of the engine to a lap on the track.

Our virtual reality experience was available to consumers through a smartphone app and Google Cardboard. To promote the app, we created content around the ‘making of’ the virtual reality experience to attract people through engaging storytelling.

Ultimately, we brought the Porsche driving experience to our target through an innovative and engaging virtual reality experience.

We knew that virtual reality would play a pivotal role, but we needed to employ other tactics to pull potential Porsche owners into the experience. We started with content, and partnered with Conde Nast to document the VR filming process and share the making-of experience with our car enthusiasts.

We created 5,000 limited edition Porsche-branded Google Cardboard viewers. Each individually numbered viewer was wrapped in faux-leather to resemble the beautiful leather of the car interior, and featured a scannable code that easily directed aspiring owners to the app. When they added their smartphone to the Cardboard viewer, they instantly had a VR headset.

We sent the Cardboards to our high-potential buyers, as well as hand-picked influencers to generate excitement for the app.

All tactics were harmoniously released in concert, creating an immersive Porsche virtual reality experience with a variety of consumer entry points.

The Porsche VR App led to 2.6x more virtual test drives than all 188 US dealerships in the app’s first month. Potential buyers spent over 1,000 hours in the virtual seat of a Porsche sports car. The average user spent 2.2x more time in the app than on the brand website, and Virtual Reality became our #1 engagement channel during the campaign.

Instead of trying to convey an experience through words or traditional video, we let the user become immersed in Porsche through virtual reality right in their homes.