Lockheed Martin: The Field Trip To Mars [video] [english]

Credits & Description:

Agency: Mccann New York
Brand: Lockheed Martin
Country: USA
Advertising Agency: Mccann New York
Entrant Company: Mccann New York
Media Agency: Universal Mccann, New York
Pr Agency: Weber Shandwick, New York
Production Company: Framestore Vr Studio, New York
Executive Integrated Producer: Christine Lane (Mccann New York)
Group Creative Director: Dave Waraksa (Mccann New York)
Strategy Director: Jessica Mendoza (Mccann New York)
Global Executive Creative Director: John Mescall (Mccann New York)
Executive Integrated Producer: Kathy Love (Mccann New York)
Original Content Creator: Sebastian Savino (Mccann New York)
Senior Producer: Chance Bassett (Mccann New York)
Svp, Executive Music Producer: Eric Johnson (Mccann New York)
Original Content Creator: Eric Perini (Mccann New York)
North American Chief Creative Officer: Eric Silver (Mccann New York)
Copywriter: Joe Moon (Mccann New York)
Art Director: Kavon Johnson (Mccann New York)
Executive Account Director: Lisaann Nocella (Mccann New York)
Chief Strategy Officer North America: Steve Zaroff (Mccann New York)
Executive Creative Director: Vann Graves (Mccann New York)
Account Supervisor:: Chloe Scott (Mccann New York)
Co-Chief Creative Officer New York: Sean Bryan (Mccann New York)
Executive Creative Director: Dan Donovan (Mccann New York)
Executive Planning Director: Mike Medeiros (Mccann New York)
Group Creative Director: Josh Grossberg (Mccann New York)
Chief Production Officer: Nathy Aviram (Craft New York)
Account Director: Rik Koletar (Mccann New York)
Co-Chief Creative Officer New York: Tom Murphy (Mccann New York)
Production Company: Framestore, New York
Senior Executive Producer: Theo Jones
Executive Producer: Jennifer Siegel
Producers: Sue McNamara/Graham Dunglinson
Outcome:
In the week after the launch of the bus, Lockheed Martin saw a
126% increase in mentions within the Mars conversation. In the same timeframe, Lockheed Martin received 260% more mentions than SpaceX, even though SpaceX had been dominating the Mars conversation in years prior.Since the inaugural field trip, videos featuring the virtual field trip have been viewed over 2.5 million times and the bus was even a trending topic on Facebook for more than 24 hours.Conversation spanned across 55 countries and many different groups of people, including educators, Mars enthusiasts, technology influencers, virtual reality experts, parents, and even school transportation organizations, all of whom were inspired by our Field Trip to Mars and excited about the future of deep space travel. Our activation helped Lockheed Martin reclaim the Mars conversation and take their rightful place in front of SpaceX as the leader in the mission to Mars.
Execution:
Over the course of six months, we designed the first-ever headset-free group virtual reality vehicle experience. We started by creating 200 square miles of Mars’ surface using Unreal 4. We then mapped the Mars surface to the real streets of D.C, and showcased geological features, the Curiosity rover, a realistic base camp and a massive Martian dust storm. And then we bought a school bus. We completely gutted the bus to install our custom-built switchable electric glass screens that transitioned from transparent to opaque, and paired them with 4K transparent LCD displays. We then re-outfitted the bus to make it look and feel like any other school bus. By integrating our virtual Mars surface, custom screen technology, GPS, 3-axis accelerometer, magnetometer, and laser surface velocimeter, the bus became our virtual reality “headset”. When the bus moved, the surface moved; and when the bus turned, we turned on Mars too.
Synopsis:
From putting the first American satellite into orbit to being the first company to put man on the moon, Lockheed Martin has always led the way in helping humankind achieve our dreams of exploring beyond our planet. And now we’re building the technology that will take us to Mars. Yet, week after week, Elon Musk and his SpaceX Corporation dominate the majority of conversation related to Mars. Musk and his company are being celebrated for promising to one day get us to Mars, even though they haven’t gone past lower earth orbit (a mere 249 miles above Earth). We needed to take back the Mars conversation and change the narrative from the promise of a far-off future to one that’s actually happening today.
Campaign Description:
To make our leadership a larger part of the cultural conversation, and inspire the first generation that will travel to Mars, we brought the Red Planet closer than it has ever been before. We transformed a classic school bus into an immersive, moving field trip where passengers can see, hear and feel what the surface of Mars is like, and do so as a shared experience without headsets or goggles. Our first riders, D.C.-area students, thought they were going on a normal field trip to the USA Science & Engineering Festival. But the real event started as the windows transformed to reveal the Martian landscape and we surprised them with a field trip unlike any other.By creating this first-of-its-kind technology to bring Mars to Earth, we’re using innovation to inspire an entire generation to realize how much further they can truly go, with some help from Lockheed Martin.
Strategy:
We needed to get the public to recognize that Lockheed Martin is making actual progress to get humankind to Mars. But we couldn’t just show off our technology, we needed to take a bold step forward in getting America ready for our journey to Mars. So we turned our attention towards kids in school today—the generation that will be the first to go to Mars—and created an experience that would not only inspire our future space explorers but also rally the public behind Lockheed Martin’s mission. We called on the public to support the generation that will go beyond.