In 2016, Air Force Special Operations had a huge awareness problem. When people think of Special Ops, they think of the Seals or the Rangers, but know little to nothing about these Air Force combat warriors. They train like the other Special Forces and embed with all of them to bring air support to the fight, yet too few people even knew they existed. Making recruiting efforts even tougher is the fact that over 80% of people who do attempt to make it through Special Ops training fail.

2016 was also the year of VR. It was being hyped everywhere as the newest, most immersive storytelling tool. And new ways to affordably package and distribute the technology were reaching critical mass.

Our creative idea was to let young people experience a Special Ops team they didn’t even know existed in a new medium many had never experienced before.

To intrigue a larger audience of new recruits, we needed to get as close to the Air Force Special Ops world as possible. Instead of just telling them about it, we wanted them to experience it, so we went on actual training missions with Spec Ops teams. From there, we created 360° VR films and created an app to experience the content.

And because most teenagers don’t yet have a way to view VR, we put the technology into as many hands as possible. We did direct mail campaigns and sent out Google cardboard to potential recruits, created digital banners and social posts to create awareness and give people the chance to opt in to receive the viewers.

With the app and VR viewer, they used their own phones to infiltrate buildings, go on rescue missions and even jump out of planes. It’s the first app to ever take you behind the scenes of a Special Ops world you never even knew existed.

To date, our 360° videos have reached more than 3.6MM people on Facebook, garnering more than 2.5MM views. On YouTube, where we were the first branch of the armed forces to distribute 360° video in ads, we’ve driven more than 3.6MM views and reached another 5.8MM people. Beginning in January, through a partnership with true[X], our 360° video content became their first multi-video 360° engagement unit garnering over 153K engagements to date. With our mobile rich media partners Parsec & AdTheorent, we were their alpha partner in launching 360° video units, including a click-to-expand unit that housed multiple 360° videos. Overall aggregated total time spent with the 360° content has topped more than four years or 2.1MM minutes! The world now knows about Air Force Special Operations.