Picture this. You’re driving in your neighborhood. Your phone beeps. You take your eyes off the road for just a second. What happens next…could be life-changing.

It’s hard to envision a moment like that until you experience it. And we don’t want that to happen. So we’re bringing it to life—virtually.

As part of AT&T’s It Can Wait campaign, the company created a new virtual reality experience that simulates, in an immersive but safe 3-D setting, the potentially deadly consequences of glancing at your phone while driving.

Behind the wheel, everything can change in the blink of an eye. A post, a selfie, a text, a scroll, an email—one look is all it takes. And shockingly, research found that 7-in-10 people engage in smartphone activities while driving. Virtual Reality takes the campaign to a new medium - and level of immersion - that doesn't allow viewers to look away.

It Can Wait VR was created with a mix of both CG and Live-action components. The car, driver and effects of the crash were done in CG while the environments were captured just blocks from the clients headquarters in a shoot in Dallas, TX. It was then finished with realistic sound design to build tension and bring gravitas to the "crash moment". The VR experience takes you through a building series of "almost" disasters culminating in an acutal wreck caused by distracted driving. The team built both the content (available on YouTube) and the app which houses the content which can be downloaded for ioS or Android on the App Store or Google Play. For demo purposes it was built for the Samsung Gear VR

Once finished, with Samsung, Bose and Google as collaborators to ensure that the activation was as effective as the content, the virtual reality (VR) experience went on a tour of more than 100 cities, starting in July 2015. The tour setup was delivered through Samsung’s Gear VR headset, powered by its Galaxy Note 4 smartphone, along with premium sound from Bose QuietComfort® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones. Over 100,000 branded Google Cardboard viewers were distributed at tour stops and viewing events.

Audiences not part of the tour stops could also use Google Cardboard and their own smartphone to experience the It Can Wait Driving Simulation by downloading the free VR app and purchasing Cardboard at www.ItCanWait.com/VR.

The launch and tour of It Can Wait VR was also supported by a full national press campaign on the strategy as well as local press surrounding the tour stops in the various cities.