More than 70,000 visitors from over 60 countries in 5 days. Numbers speak for themselves: iba is the world-leading trade fair for baked goods. And to celebrate that, they wanted to enhance their brand experience – so we joined efforts to make it happen.
Trade fairs connect people and empower international communities. In such a global industry, the need to convey a contextual message is more important than ever. With that in mind, we set ourselves to narrate iba’s unique story through VR.
More than 70,000 visitors from over 60 countries in 5 days. Numbers speak for themselves: iba is the world-leading trade fair for baked goods. And to celebrate that, they wanted to enhance their brand experience – so we joined efforts to make it happen.
Trade fairs connect people and empower international communities. In such a global industry, the need to convey a contextual message is more important than ever. With that in mind, we set ourselves to narrate iba’s unique story through VR.
What makes iba unique is its exceptional international reach. Every three years, people from all over the world travel to Munich, eager to see the newest innovations in baking. After lots of planning trips to assess 35 potential locations, we chose six bakeries that would best represent the iba network through their outstanding work.
We wanted to feature our showcase bakers, while capturing the look and spirit of each city. In close cooperation with the exhibition team, we created custom imagery and videos for each of the 6 selected locations in Austria, Iceland, Germany, Greece and the USA.
Within 2 months, we gathered more than 1000 hours of 360° video material, conducted detailed interviews and produced documentary content. The content was then used for digital signage, promotion and of course social media.
The industry's greatest talents come into direct contact with users and are given space to tell their own, unique stories. This form of active storytelling allows deep insights into the context and everyday life of our six talents. On top of that, it engages the audience directly and emotionally at every point of the experience.
We made sure each user could create a custom journey and dive deeply into the story of each bakery. The result? A fully emotional and engaging experience, where exploration and discovery are highly encouraged. Because it’s not the same when you hear it from someone else, and when you can experience it all by yourself.
By allowing users to decide which tours to watch, we achieved industry-leading watch times of more than 10 min per viewer.
We achieved onboarding times of less than one minute by using proven UI patterns and skilled instructors.
Using all of the channels available across the trade-fair, we conveyed our message in more than eight languages.
Within few hours, our stand turned into a major attraction and was highly discussed on social media. Due to the unforgettable VR experience, iba 2019's narrative focussing on innovation became the trade fair's emotional center piece that built sustainable and authentic buzz within the industry. More than 95% of users recommend the iba VBT experience on the spot to other visitors and spent more than 10 minutes on average exploring the Oculus Go headsets.
More than ever before should immersive technologies be challenged and pushed to their absolute boundaries. And that’s precisely what we’re doing at &why, because our commitment to connect people takes us to places we haven’t been to before. And to places we are eager to visit soon, with you.
