shots Awards 2016: Interactive & Experiential OTY

It's perhaps no surprise that Framestore's work for Lockheed Martin secured Interactive and Experiential Campaigns of the Year, given its pioneering technology that allowed virtual reality to be experienced simultaneously by a group - and marked a new industry first.

The campaign was largely praised for its ability to push the boundaries of what's possible with VR, while also educating children about space travel through a virtual trip to Mars.

shots caught up with Framestore's senior producer Sue McNamara to find out how complicated it was to create such a momentous campaign (apparently not very), why injecting passion into the project was equally as important as the idea itself and how a strong team was the key ingredient above all else. 

shots Awards 2016: Interactive Campaign of the Year & Experiential Campaign of the Year

Gold Winner: Lockheed Martin Field Trip to Mars

Had you ever worked on a similar project before the Lockheed Martin initiative? 

Never. We had worked on a multitude of VR projects before this but never anything to this scale, nor something that was a true 1:1 representation of the real world.

Why do you think the campaign resonated with the shots Awards jury and other juries around the world? 

We believe what we did on Field Trip was groundbreaking in that it took tools we already knew how to use and adapted them to create an experience like no other.

One of the judges said that the campaign was “a great example of pushing further to find greatness.” How did the team approach this project; did you know that you were all working on something that would be so highly regarded? 

I don’t think we really understood at the time how big this campaign would become. We approached it as we do any project: by breaking it down into components, and trying to understand how each component would work. One of the biggest hurdles was bringing everything back together as one. It was that fusion of art and technology that I think pushed this project to the next level.

Many experiential campaigns rely heavily on technology, but is a great idea the most important thing? 

A great idea is certainly important, but there also needs to be a passion behind that great idea. A huge amount of passion went into this project.

What was the most difficult part of putting the campaign together? 

The most difficult part was the final fusion - bringing together all of the different systems we had developed, and testing them until they worked as one cohesive piece of technology.

What does winning gold in the shots Awards Experiential and Interactive Campaign Of The Year categories mean to you? 

More than anything we are honored and incredibly happy that our bus has seemed to resonate throughout the industry. Its successes are testament to a lot of hard work from an extraordinarily talented team.