As we analyzed the long list of issues, it was clear we couldn't address them all. We had to choose, but how? One of the answers came from Facebook. A post from an acquaintance talked about how she was “sick and tired of all these refugees flooding in and taking Canadian jobs.” She continued to say that her daughter "couldn’t even get a job at the local coffee shop because of all the brown people they were hiring." This was a light-bulb moment. This person, like too many others, lacked any perspective or empathy for the plight of refugees. What if we could put this person in a refugee’s shoes? Not in Syria, but right here at home – through the lens of a Canadian neighbourhood. Virtual reality/360 video was the perfect tool for the job.

We researched the best in narrative VR pieces and determined that to execute this narrative piece, the experience always had to include the element of sitting or being transported in some way. We deployed a small crew for a rigorous five-day shoot. We transformed a Canadian city into a war-torn country with chaotic check-points and intense airstrikes, as well as massive refugee camps with the backdrop of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Next, we implemented practical effects and CGI and fine-tuned the virtual reality experience. Before launching the video online, we took the experience across Canada and filmed reactions – they were incredible and raw. We launched the video online with an aggressive content and digital campaign for three weeks. Canadians could experience the VR themselves with the 360° video capabilities on YouTube and Facebook, along with videos of our journey across Canada, behind the scenes action, infographics and more.

In just three weeks, our Refugee VR Experience garnered over 7 million impressions on social media with 1.2 million video views, a reach of 3 million unique Canadians, or 10 per cent of the Canadian population, and over 200 thousand engagements. Almost all of these views and engagements came from our target audience – the millennial switchers. They were not just passive viewers, they actively shared the content and encouraged others to do something about the crisis. They also commented with moving stories of their own experiences coming to Canada and what it meant for them to be accepted. This was our ROI. We did not have traditional campaign goals, where we were looking for leads and sales, but rather empathy, activism and engagement. We achieved our business targets with every share, retweet and view and still see the results increasing to this day.