World-first live streaming virtual reality birth using Samsung Gear VR features in latest campaign via Leo Burnett, Sydney
Aussie dad witnesses child’s birth from 4,000km away using Samsung Gear VR
A world-first live streaming virtual reality (VR) birth using Samsung Gear VR has let an Australian father experience a life-defining moment he otherwise would have missed: the birth of his son. Although in Chinchilla, a remote Queensland town, Samsung’s Gear VR headset allowed Jason (Jace) Larke to experience the birth in real time, as if he was standing in the Perth delivery room – 4,000 kilometres away.
The world’s first live streaming virtual reality birth using Samsung Gear VR*, part of Samsung’s ‘LifeLIVE’ campaign, demonstrates the ability of new technology connecting people in ways that create powerful and emotive shared experiences that wouldn’t otherwise exist. The campaign was developed by Samsung Electronics Australia with its creative agency, Leo Burnett Sydney.
Jace, a ‘fly in, fly out’ electrical contractor, faced a hard decision when an unavoidable work commitment required him to be in Queensland on the due date: Take the job and miss the imminent birth of his third son, or refuse it and remain in Perth with his heavily pregnant wife Alison, but miss out on the contract work.
Working with production company, Rapid VR, Samsung Australia and Leo Burnett livestreamed 360 degree footage of the birth across Australia, from Perth to Chinchilla, which Jace viewed using the Samsung Gear VR headset. It meant Jace was present in the delivery room, supporting his wife Alison every step of the way, and look around the room to experience the joyous occasion as if he were actually there. Late on Friday February 20, 2015, he witnessed the birth of Steele Larke.
Says Arno Lenior, chief marketing officer, Samsung Electronics Australia: “The Samsung Gear VR technology is exciting, but what we are even more proud of are the amazing, emotion-charged experiences made possible by eliminating physical and geographic barriers and delivering new ways to experience immersive content.
“We are connecting people in ways never before thought possible to ensure Aussies don’t miss those significant moments which life is really all about.”
Says Andy DiLallo, chief creative officer, Leo Burnett Sydney: “This goes beyond what the technology does and how it works – it’s about how it touches and changes peoples’ lives in new and compelling ways by allowing them to be part of experiences that they would otherwise miss. In Jace and Alison’s story, that was sharing the miracle of birth through the miracle of technology.”
“This technology gives people the ability to ‘be there’ to experience life-changing, life-defining or life-affirming moments that would previously have been missed, and make emotional connections that would not otherwise have been made. This is about harnessing the potential for truly remarkable shared connections that are at the core of the human experience.”
Client: Samsung
Chief Marketing Officer: Arno Lenior
Head of Marketing Communications: Ian Bell
Group Marketing Manager: Ana Vrinat
Marketing Manager, TELCO: Bianca Da Silva
Assistant Marketing Manager, DI: Michelle Carter
Head of Corporate Affairs: Richard Noble
Corporate Affairs Manager: Shaneez Johnston
Agency: Leo Burnett, Sydney
Chief Creative Officer: Andy DiLallo
Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Mark Tutssel
Executive Creative Director: Vince Lagana
Executive Creative Director: Grant McAloon
Creative Director: Sharon Edmondston
Creative Director: Misha McDonald
Art Director: Vince Lagana
Copywriter: Grant McAloon
Executive Producer: Jeremy de Villiers
Design: Bruno Nakano and Jason Young
Client Services Director: Amanda Quested
Business Director: Laura Dowling
Production Company: Rapid VR
Director (Perth): Dave Klaiber
Director (QLD): Taylor Steele
DOP (Perth): Earle Dresner
DOP (QLD): Ben Nott
Executive Producer: Susannah DiLallo
Casting Director: Toni Higginbotham Casting
VR Specialist: Dan White
Production Manager (Perth): Lizzi Topen
Production Manager (QLD): Garrett Robinson
Production Manager (SYD): Catherine Warner
Focus Puller (Perth): Eamon Dimmitt
Focus Puller (QLD): Jeremy Donohoe
Data Wrangler (QLD): Kareem Anti
Gaffer (QLD): Matthew Slattery
Sound (Perth): Trevor Hope
Sound (QLD): Paul Jones
Runner (Perth): Matt Hodgkinson
Runner (QLD): Ashley Hooker
Music Soundtrack: All I want
Band: Kodaline
Sound Mix: We Love Jam
PR: Edelman
Chief Operating Officer: Matthew Gain
Associate Director: Carla Webb
Senior Account Manager: Kate Spencer
Technical Product Specialist: Matthew Wu
Media: Starcom
Account Director: Jacqui Purcell
Digital Account Director: Angelique Crusius
17 Comments
Screw all you guys for making me cry!
Simply beautiful.
-Happy tears.
How screwed up is humanity that this sort of thing needs to be developed. We’ve got all our priorities mixed up. This’ll probably win awards too! Fabulous.
Such an amazing piece of work
How sad for the dude who can’t get time off / swap a shift to see the birth of his child.
Wow… there really is nowhere people won’t go… to win an award.
Well done everyone involved. Will be very well received by the industry and punters.
Wow! Brought a tear to my eye.
How is that any different from suspending a webcam between the stirrups? I’m all for innovation but wouldn’t a 360 just encourage him to eye up the midwives? In these sort of situations a locked off camera is almost mandatory
Well done Leo’s. Bring on the Awards.
hats off for getting this made but its very forced. Just another example of pulling emotional heartstrings to make an idea better. I get it if the story would have been a scenario where there was no way on earth that this guy could get back for but the fact he was just in Queensland makes it pretty weak. I don’t know any employer that wouldn’t let him have the time off to see the birth of his son. Think i preferred the Shark VR example.
Clearly this is meant to pull on the heartstrings, but for me it has the opposite effect.
There is no authenticity in this – it’s cynical and contrived. We’re meant to believe an electrical contractor prioritises contract work over being there to experience the birth of his child firsthand – and then we’re meant to feel empathy for him? Really? This smacks of self-serving setup and is the perfect example of how an insatiable thirst for awards ends up warping your sense of humanity.
Very suspect. A guy can’t see his birth because he works in a mine?
Any boss who doesn’t let his workers see the birth of their child is a bum. Good of Leo Burnett to point this out. I like these blokes because last year they tried to fix up Pakistan/ India relations with a vending machine.
Where’s the vending machine? Also needs more shots of happy people in the case study. Another cynical contrived awards piece for the master.
The guy makes it very clear that he needs to be away working to support and make money for his new family. A tough decision many Aussie battlers need to make. He says nothing about his contractor not allowing him to go come home. He has made the decision himself. He simply has no choice. They need the money. I don’t expect you negative writers, sitting behind your laptop in your air conditioned office to understand it! You wouldn’t have a clue.
I bloody love it and so do most people. It’s everywhere i look.
I am seeing this clip pop up a lot of places online at the moment from around the world so I say good on them. I have relatives in the mines and as the boom winds down I know many of them are worried about losing their positions if they knock back work. But beyond that, imagine people in the military posted overseas using this, or medical consultants? The people bitching about whether or not this guy could have come home if he really wanted to probably call themselves creatives, yet still don’t have the imagination to think of the potential this technology is really opening up.
As beautiful as this is, its not samsungs technology and im disgusted they are claiming it as such
The gear vr headset is an occulus rift adapted to work for samsung phones
Not some new innovation they came up with
https://www.oculus.com/blog/gear-vr-innovator-edition-now-available/
They worked with occulus to have the rift redesigned for their phones, occulus did all the work, samsung is just the ones selling it, yet they think they deserve credit for it. Hell most of the tech involved in its creation is literally patented to occulus, who is owned by facebook. Basically they are doing to occulus exactly what apple has been doing to them for years.