Ubisoft: Nosulus Rift [image]

Credits & Description:

Agency: Buzzman Paris, France
Client: Ubisoft
Product: Video Game Developer And Publisher
Entrant: Buzzman Paris, France
Title: Nosulus Rift
Product/Service: Video Game Developer And Publisher
Idea Creation: Buzzman Paris, France
Idea Creation 2: Productman Paris, France
Pr: Buzzman Paris, France
Production: Les Improductibles Paris, France
Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, EMEA: GEOFFROY SARDIN (UBISOFT)
VP, Marketing, EMEA: GUILLAUME CARMONA (UBISOFT)
Associate Director, Marketing, EMEA: FRANCOIS-XAVIER DENIELE (UBISOFT)
Brand Manager, EMEA: LOUIS TRUPIN (UBISOFT)
Digital Marketing Manager, EMEA: VALENTIN PASQUIER DESVIGNES (UBISOFT)
PR Manager, EMEA: THOMAS BEAUFILS (UBISOFT)
President & Executive Creative Director: GEORGES MOHAMMED-CHERIF (PRODUCTMAN / BUZZMAN)
Vice-president: THOMAS GRANGER (PRODUCTMAN / BUZZMAN)
Head of Digital & Innovation: FRANCOIS PHAN (PRODUCTMAN / BUZZMAN)
Development Officer: THOMAS CECCALDI (PRODUCTMAN)
Creative Director & Artistic Director: LOUIS AUDARD (PRODUCTMAN /BUZZMAN)
Creative Director & Copywriter: TRISTAN DALTROFF (PRODUCTMAN / BUZZMAN)
Ingineer Hardware - Hackerloop: VALENTIN SQUIRELO (PRODUCTMAN)
Software Developer - Hackerloop: CONSTANTIN CLAUZEL & CHARLES PASSET (PRODUCTMAN)
Industrial Designer - OVA Design: BENJAMIN SABOURIN & NICOLAS MARQUIS (PRODUCTMAN)
Nose and Chimist - Cinquième Sens: ISABELLE FERRAND & SARAH BURRI (PRODUCTMAN)
Digital Studio: NEUVIÈME PAGE (NEUVIÈME PAGE)
Associate Director: JULIEN LEVILAIN (BUZZMAN)
Artistic Director Assistant: JENNYFER ARDUIN (BUZZMAN)
Account Director: THOMAS CROUZET (BUZZMAN)
Senior Strategic Planner: CLEMENT SCHERRER (BUZZMAN)
Digital producers: SAMIR SEMAOUNE & CHRISTELLE PEREIRA & SOUFIANE LAHLOU (BUZZMAN)
Head of TV Production: VANESSA BARBEL (BUZZMAN)
Production manager: BENOIT CROUET (BUZZMAN)
Head of Social Media: JULIEN SCAGLIONE (BUZZMAN)
Social Media Manager: LORIS BERNARDINI (BUZZMAN)
Executive Producer: YANN GIRARD (LES IMPRODUCTIBLES)
Head of Production: AURELIE CHEVALIER (LES IMPRODUCTIBLES)
Director: BENOIT PÉTRÉ (BENOIT PÉTRÉ)
PR & Communication Managers: AMELIE JUILLET & CLARA BASCOUL-GAUTHIER (BUZZMAN)
Website URL: http://www.nosulusrift.com
The Campaign
The Nosulus Rift is a device specifically created to enhance the South Park: TFBW experience during gaming conventions. To develop the Nosulus Rift, we’ve collaborated with a team composed of hardware and software engineers, designers and perfume specialists. By inserting an inaudible soundwave (that only the mask can detect) in the fart sound FX of the game, the Nosulus knows when to trigger the smell. Thus, whenever the player activates the New Kid’s fart in the game, he triggers the fart smell in the device. From a design perspective, we were inspired by all the VR trends and our main concern was to create an ergonomic and comfortable product in order to immerse the players in the game. Regarding the odor, we were able, after 25 attempts, to create the “universal fart” smell. Finally, we’ve had the agreement of Oculus regarding the naming
Campaign Success
The first step was the creation of a proof of concept. Afterwards, we’ve built the Nosulus Rift as a product that could be sold : all materials used (plastic, aluminium and plexiglas) are in compliance with EU regulations and industry standards. To date, there are 25 Nosulus around the world that were built in less than two months. All the masks were made in France.
These devices are available for testing during several gaming conventions around the world. It all started in August during Gamescom which is the biggest convention in Europe (350,000 visitors). After, the Nosulus was in Seattle for the PAX West fair (approx. 70,000 visitors) and in Birmingham for EGX (approx. 75,000 visitors). The journey of the Nosulus will last until the launch of the video game which has been postponed to end of Q1 2017. Next step is the Paris Games Week (approx. 300,000 visitors).
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results
The Nosulus Rift campaign is a massive success. Indeed, over 10,000 people have tested the device worldwide. But the number of people who have heard about the Nosulus is much higher. Here are the key figures :
- Almost 6M people have seen the commercial
- Between the launch of the commercial and the end of Gamescom, almost 500,000 people have visited nosulusrift.com
- The PR media coverage was amazing: in total, 693 articles coming from 59 countries talked about the campaign. Among them, 60 were edited on major media brands : BBC, TF1, Mashable, Vice, IGN, The Independent, Die Zeit, …
- Several YouTube celebrities such as PewDiePie posted a video using the Nosulus. Brought together, these videos were seen by over 10M people
- There has been 17k tweets with a potential reach of 117,12M people
But what’s most impressive is that there wasn’t any media buy !
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service
Nosulus Rift is the first virtual fart simulator. It takes virtual reality to a whole new level by allowing players to enjoy South Park : The Fractured But Whole in the most immersive way possible.
Therefore, it has been world premiered in August at Gamescom (Europe’s biggest video game event) where fans have had the chance to experience it. It was then available at PAX or EGX and will be available at all the gaming conventions prior to the launch of the game.
To date, over 10,000 people have tried the Nosulus and almost 700 articles have talked about it.
Our objective was to target a broader audience than just the South Park fans. This meant targetting all kinds of gamers, video games fans and geeks who go to gaming conventions in order to test all the new games before their release. Therefore, it was obvious that the Nosulus Rift had to be available on the Ubisoft booth at all the gaming conventions prior to the game’s launch. The Nosulus Rift was first available for testing at Gamescom. In order to let people know about this event, we’ve launched a commercial of the Nosulus a few days before the opening of Gamescom. This ad went viral in a few hours and the #Nosulus spread quickly. Therfore, loads of people came to test the Nosulus and talked about it in social media. After this first success, the Nosulus Rift travelled from one convention to another always meeting with great success