Telstra’s sponsorship strategy centres on connecting audiences with the things they love. With this in mind, we came to the realization that 360 video technology allows us to put fans at the heart of the action, giving them the chance to interact with their sporting and artistic heroes like never before.

The result was ‘Telstra 360: For the Fans’. The piece brings together some of the highest profile talent in Australia– from footballers Jarryd Hayne, Tim Cahill and Adam Goodes through to ballerina Dimity Azoury.

The action brings to life their skill, intensity and determination against a visually stunning 360 degree virtual environment created in post production. An emotive voiceover celebrates the role fans play, with carefully crafted music and sound design helping the audience navigate through the action.

360 is complex and places entirely different demands on creators with a need for specific rigs, unique camera set ups and technically sophisticated post production to deliver a VR enabled, mobile first experience. Given the user charts their own path through the video, the storytelling and action needs to be highly choreographed too.

Traditional film-making techniques could not be utilized for this new medium, and extensive R&D had to be carried out to determine how to composite CG and live action elements while retaining correct perspective. Each star was filmed on green screen and composited into an immersive, custom built CG 360 environment.

'For the Fans' surpassed all expectations, achieving over 1,559,000 views to date and exceeding the paid target by 437,000 views. We reached a unique audience of more than 3.7 million, achieving or exceeding all benchmarks.

The film garnered traction not just in Australia, but in 150 countries around the world. The long form video delivered engagement and completion rates more commonly attributed to short form advertising.

The most satisfying result was the 89% positive sentiment in YouTube with comments such as “this is the future – AMAZING” and “OMG, Best Video in the World without a doubt”.

The piece is a finalist in the Digiday Content Marketing Awards for Best Interactive Content Piece, as well as a finalist at the Mumbrella BE Fest awards for Best Execution.