Facebook Innovations

Wanna Try VR? Program

Project Summary

Facebook Innovations aims to demonstrate that Facebook is not only a social media platform. In 2017, Facebook and our agency partners orchestrated a nationwide virtual reality takeover spanning major cities and key airports.

Facebook’s goal was to highlight its ownership of Palmer Lucky’s prized company Oculus by using the newly launched Samsung Gear VR headset and Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

Vendors Involved

Have you heard?

Oculus is a brand of Facebook Technologies, LLC, a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. Now based in Menlo Park, it specializes in virtual reality hardware and software products.

The company partnered with Samsung to develop the Samsung Gear VR in November 2015 for the Samsung Galaxy smartphones. Zuckerberg aimed to have 1 billion virtual reality headsets in consumers' hands.

Program Launch

After months of logistical planning and working with fabricators building two mobile experience containers, the team set out to tour the United States to showcase the Samsung Gear VR technology to consumers. The project goal was to allow anybody and everybody the first chance to experience what virtual reality looked like.

Each mobile container would be set up in the middle of a metropolitan area to activate over the course of a week and offer new experiences to anyone over the age of 13. Later down the line, Facebook would use these containers for special sponsored events in the Bay Area, like F8 (Facebook’s yearly convention in San Jose), FB recruiter events, and the Pebble Beach Pro/Am golf tournament.

Tour Impact

  • Visited 18 U.S. cities

  • Accumulated 358,000 VR demos

  • Reaching our astonishing consumer demographic of 13 to 89 years of age

  • Gained attention from top Facebook executives including the former CMO, Gary Briggs

The Customer Experience

  • Customers read the signage or asked FB team members, “What is going on here?”

  • Guests waited in line while registering with a team member via iPad FotoApp

  • Once assigned to an ODST member (demo specialist), they were briefed on the safety measures and content overview

  • Guests experienced a 2:30 video spanning environments in AR and VR

  • Customers then exited to a brief capturing survey on their overall experience

  • Lastly, registrants received small swag items and a photo

Business Insider Article
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Key Highlights

  • Facebook’s marketing contact, Kirsten McKay, began to reach out directly for operations help

  • The mobile containers continued to get used at internal Facebook events (Intern-palooza, campus events, etc.)

  • The Facebook experience container was featured at the Pebble Beach Pro/Am in 2018, featuring former Commander and Chief, Barak Obama

  • I continued working as an ODST (demo specialist) in Seattle, WA, for local Facebook mixers (Woman in Tech, Oculus social hour, etc.)

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