Hotel Seeks Amateur Filmmakers for VR Marketing Campaign

The travel industry was one of the first to welcome virtual reality in its hospitality marketing. And now St. Giles Hotels is giving people a chance to make their filmmaking dreams a reality by hosting a contest with creative shop Piranha to find the best amateur virtual reality filmmakers. Adweek.com featured more on how the global hotel chain is making this contest virtually irresistible to consumers.

St. Giles Hotels has nine properties in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, so this search is a global endeavor. The hotel brand is planning to provide special 360-degree cameras to guests, staff, and social media influencers to allow them to share their St. Giles story on the premises in a virtually visual way. Consumers can enter by completing an entry form found on the St. Giles website and responding to a few personal questions about their travel habits and social media usage.

Thirty entrants will win a one-night stay at one of six St. Giles properties in New York, London, Sydney, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila over the summer. Winners will be given Samsung’s new Gear 360 cameras to use to film buzz-worthy virtual reality videos all around the city of their stay.

St. Giles Hotels is planning to use the final cuts of the winning videos in an upcoming digital and social media marketing campaign scheduled for rollout in September. The hotel brand also plans to launch a mobile app that will let the film content be viewed through a Google Cardboard headset.

With this 360-degree filmmaking contest, virtual reality technology will hopefully no longer be relegated to tech experts and social media pros, but will be seen in a more consumer-friendly context.

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