Honda has supported the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation for over three decades. This year, in addition to a donation, we wanted to create a special experience specifically for kids who were stuck in the hospital over the Christmas holidays. These kids dream of being able to take part in regular winter activities like other kids, but can’t because they’re confined to the hospital.
The main objective was to create an experience that provides the kids with joy during the holidays, which is an especially stressful time for kids to be in the hospital.
The secondary objective was to demonstrate to the general public that Honda has a heart and is a company that cares about all members of the community.
Since kids undergoing treatment for brain cancer can’t leave the hospital and take part in regular winter holiday activities like other kids, we used VR to transport them inside a snow globe where they could play in the snow, build a snowman, conduct an orchestra, and watch an amazing fireworks display.
First, the kids were brought into a room with a shrinking machine and a magic snow globe. Then they were asked if they wanted to shrink down and go inside the snow globe. Then they had to put on the shrinking machine helmet – VR goggles designed to look like a fun helmet. Then they saw an animation that showed them being transported inside the snow globe. Inside the snow globe they could interact with all sorts of elements. They got to conduct an orchestra, make it snow, watch a fireworks display, and create a snowman. After the experience, they took off the helmet and found a surprise: a real version of the exact snowman they made inside the snow globe was waiting for them as a gift.
The Magic Snow Globe experience was available to children at the CHOC Children’s Hospital for the entire month of December. During this time, all the kids who were at the hospital got a chance to use the experience. On a more technical side, since we knew what room in the hospital the experience would be held, we tailored the VR experience to that. We painstakingly re-created the real room and real shrinking machine in virtual reality so when the kids were inside the VR snow globe and looked up, they could see the shrinking machine towers and the hospital-room ceiling. This made it feel even more like they were actually shrunk down and inside the real snow globe.
The video created to document the experience was shared on Honda’s social channels. The video got over 2 million views, and performed at 1.5x the benchmark. The whole experience reinforced Honda’s tagline ,‘The Power of Dreams’ and increased brand affinity because of all the lives the experience touched at the hospital.
The impact the experience had on the lives of kids stuck in the hospital over the holidays is hard to measure with stats. Judging by the smiles on the kids’ faces, and on the faces of their parents watching their children experience joy, we believe we got the best results that we possibly could.
