The Jack Link’s Beef Jerky stunt plane, The Screamin’ Sasquatch, has entertained crowds across the country by performing death-defying aerobatic stunts but they wanted to take the experience even further.
Jack Link’s challenged us to give attendees of select airshows across the Midwest a completely immersive experience of what it’s like to fly in the Screamin’ Sasquatch, all in the name of “Feeding Your Wildside.”
In order to understand how we can make an already high-octane event even more immersive, we explored all of the different ways people can experience flight, and worked with Jack Link’s Screamin’ Sasquatch team to break down the parts of the airshow experience that fans would have the hardest time replicating on their own.
We ended up finding our final solution by asking a simple question, what’s the only thing better than being at an airshow? And quickly came up with an answer; being part of an airshow. The dream of high-flying acrobatics may be out of reach for most, but that shouldn’t stop people from experiencing the feeling of pulling Gs high above a gasping crowd.
Create a VR video experience from scratch that put airshow fans directly into the cockpit. The VR experience took attendees on a full take off to landing stunt sequence that the Screamin’ Sasquatch usually performs at airshows. We created a custom app to play the VR video on Samsung phones to create more of a seamless consumer experience.
Enabling consumers to have experiences they never would have been able to otherwise positions Jacklinks as a brand of unlimited possibilities. Providing an experience that is impossible to imitate sparked wonder in the younger generations while building stronger connections with those who already love the brand.
Creating a VR experience was a new thing to SixSpeed and our long-time partners Don't Blink Media helped us tackle it. Ensuring that the experience would be seamless for both the consumer and the people running the activation took a lot of creative problem-solving. We wouldn’t be able to solve any technical issues, so it needed to run flawlessly every time. There was a lot of trial and error involved.
The footprint for the activation housed a replica airplane fuselage with snugly fitting seats and harnesses, tail fin featuring the art seen on the real Screamin’ Sasquatch and even a blinking beacon light on the wing. To add to the challenge, The entire footprint needed to fit in two custom crates and be built and broken down quickly by only two attendants.
And nobody takes to the skies without a call sign, so we cut loose on unique naming and hand-painted helmet artwork for each pilot: Big Horn, Ripper, LaserBeef, Striker or Wildsider. Each helmet used the VR headset to mimic the look of pilot’s goggles and had earpieces within that delivered an immersive, narrated 4D spatial audio mix. Upon completion of the ride, each participant who earned their wings was presented with a custom enamel pin.
The video and audio created an experience that was about as close as you could get to being in the cockpit with the pilot. It thrilled crowds throughout the Midwest and helped connect the Jack Link’s Screamin’ Sasquatch to airshow attendees in a new way.
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