With virtual reality tipped to be one of 2016’s key tech influencers, we were approached to generate national media coverage of the UK’s biggest VR event – the Virtual Reality World Congress.
Boasting a stellar list of speakers and exhibitors, the event was a sell out. However we were tasked with generating A list media coverage for both the VRWC as well as stories that promoted the sector’s potential in the Bath and Bristol region – the most productive digital tech cluster in the UK.
Knowing the appeal broadcasters have for VR, we organised exclusive access for BBC Breakfast – and the program’s 1.5m viewers – throughout the morning. Such was the demand from the newsroom, their reporter John Maguire eventually did over a dozen live crosses, interviews and teases throughout the three-hour show – the first of which began at 6am!
Knowing how much broadcasters love case studies, we’d proactively set one up showcasing how a local, Bristol-based university was using virtual reality to train the next generation of forensic scientists – VR for CSI if you like! The offer was snapped up by the BBC and took pride of place in their feature story.
Once the Breakfast crew had packed up and left, the next wave of TV crews arrived – one from the local BBC nightly news bulletin ‘Points West’ and their ITV rival ‘West Country News’.
Both crews loved the event – not only was it a great local story for the Bristol / Bath tech sector – it was fun and exciting. The BBC’s business reporter Dave Harvey couldn’t get enough of HTC’s new LongBow VR game – and took to Facebook to showcase another great VR experience.
At the same time ITV gave a massive three minutes to their reporter Richard Payne to trial some great VR games – and more importantly to interview local tech experts about the region’s potential in this area.
And to top things off, Sky’s weekly tech program ‘Swipe’ also came along. They hosted the show from the conference floor – and in between filming and interviewing key guests, presenter Gemma Morris also hosted a panel interview that was broadcast live on Sky’s Facebook page.
We also generated some online stories including B2B Marketing, Ars Technica, the International Business Times, Computer Business Review, Gigaom, Information Age and Pocket Gamer.
All up a great day’s work – and great national and international coverage for the Bristol / Bath tech sector.
