When Facebook released 360° video capabilities, Liberty Mutual Insurance immediately saw this an opportunity for the brand. The company's creative strategy on Facebook has been primarily focused on video content, and the brand was eager to explore this new type of video content. Not only does Liberty Mutual Insurance have a strong focus on innovation, but the brand is always looking for new formats and engaging mechanisms to communicate with its audience.
Facebook and Liberty Mutual Insurance have had a strong partnership over the past several years which made this a seamless process to partner together to create a 360° video. Facebook had a clear vision for how brands should effectively be leveraging this new format. Through the efforts of Facebook's Creative Shop and Liberty Mutual's Digital Marketing Team, an immersive and interactive 360° video was created for the brand's consumers.
Facebook's Creative Shop and Liberty Mutual's Digital Marketing Team worked closely together to bring a key benefit of Liberty Mutual, 24-Hour Roadside Assistance, to life through a fun, unique, and engaging way of storytelling. 24-Hour Roadside Assistance showcases Liberty Mutual's commitment to being there for its customers whenever and wherever they are and if their vehicle breaks down, this benefit can help eliminate their worry from their roadside dilemma.
As part of the creative process, the brand and Facebook wanted to create a video that captures the viewers' attention, leading them to experience the content in a very different and engaging way. This led to the overall concept of the 360° video which was inspired by Liberty Mutual's existing Facebook video series which is a quiz style format. The video includes four simultaneous scenes in a choose-your-own-adventure video to explore what you should do when your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere.
To bring the 360° video to life, Facebook and Liberty Mutual Insurance worked with production company Ridley Scott Associates (RSA Films) and a truly talented director, Ryan Pallotta. Given the complexity of the creative, the process required a large amount of pre-production planning. Since the setting of the video was at night to showcase Liberty Mutual Insurance's 24-Hour Roadside Assistance, the production took place overnight in a secluded area of Griffith Park in Los Angeles, CA.
Facebook and Liberty Mutual Insurance reimagined the way a 360° video narrative works and created the world's first-ever 360° video choose-your-own-adventure-meets-groundhogs-day-multiple-choice-quiz video. They wanted to allow people to see what it's like to be in the middle of a helpless situation - stranded on the side of the road, at night, during winter, in the middle of nowhere. The best way to do so was to drop them into that situation. Then, to demonstrate the benefit of roadside assistance, created a multiple-choice quiz, allowing users to decide for themselves which is the best way to resolve the situation: A. Get comfortable. B. Wander into the woods. C. Call For 24-hour Roadside Assistance. The answer soon becomes obvious, as does the benefit of the service.
The teams had to invent a completely new way to film and produce 360° video. Instead of using a traditional 360° camera, which captures the world around it in one take, they broke the 360° world into four separate theaters. They had to script, choreograph and imagine how to bring to life four concurrent stories - and how to guide the user through that experience when they have the freedom to look anywhere at any time. Then using an Alexa camera, turned on it's side, filmed four different outcomes to the same scenario. We then had to stitch these four scenes together, as well as adding in a common sky and ground. The result was a seamless, engaging 360° experience.
The video launched exclusively on Facebook on March 10, along with an exclusive media placement released by AdWeek. The results were very successful with the video garnering the following: More than 5M views, more than 2,300 shares, more than 5.3k Likes and more than 900 Comments. The video also received a very high amount of positive sentiment from users.
Watch this video to learn more about Liberty Mutual's 360 Video.
