19256_WG_WGS Newsletter_3_V2_MC

The Hub
Issue 3
May 2017
The technology
The HTC Vive offers a premium VR experience and has a lifelike and natural accuracy: your head and hands move flawlessly,
with every tiny movement loyally mapped in the virtual space. The headset is designed to utilize ‘room scale’ technology to
turn a room into 3D space via sensors, with the virtual world allowing the user to navigate naturally, with the ability to walk
around and use motion tracked handheld controllers to vividly manipulate objects, interact with precision and experience
immersive environments.
This comes courtesy of the 37 sensors in the headset pairing with the sensor boxes that track your movement and position.
HTC refers to this method as ‘Lighthouse’ tracking technology – because the boxes beam out guiding infrared light to the user.
Ifan Jenkins, Head of Marketing, GTR, added: “VR is allowing us to interact with people in a whole new way, and the beautiful
imagery created for this project means that whisky drinkers can express their tasting notes in a completely individual fashion,
and in a completely new medium.”
Build and launch
Glenfiddich creates interactive Virtual Reality tasting with HTC Vive
for Global Travel Retail
The Virtual Reality experience took six weeks to create and launched this month in Singapore at TFWA Asia Pacific. The
agency used created the HTC Vive tasting experience in partnership with Wolf In Motion, a London-based VR design and
production studio.
We are delighted to have teamed up with an acclaimed UK creative agency to create a highly original and interactive virtual
reality HTC Vive whisky tasting experience called ‘Glenfiddich Virtual Infinity’, happening in airports around the world from
next month.
The tasting allows visitors to virtually discover and enjoy the infinite layers of flavours in each of Glenfiddich’s three Cask
Collection whiskies and write their own 3D tasting notes in a virtual world. This is a bold and unusual activation for Global
Travel Retail (GTR) but it was seen as the perfect environment for a VR experience with real depth, as whisky shoppers
have time on their hands, and are open to trying out interesting new tasting experiences.
Beauty imagery for all three Cask Collection expressions was created – designing an abstract representation of the Solera
Vat system showing the depth, richness and complexity of each expression. Each of the different lines and ribbons showcase
the infinite layers of flavour brought about by the many different aged whiskies being constantly added.
The Glenfiddich Virtual Infinity VR experience
In the Glenfiddich GTR area in select airports, visitors can enjoy a Cask Collection whisky tasting. They pick out the key
tasting notes of each expression before putting on their VR headsets, at which point they are virtually transported into a
perfect recreation of Warehouse 8 in Dufftown, Scotland.
The three Solera Vats stand in front of them and they are surrounded by casks. They select a Solera Vat using their hand
controllers and enter the world of that expression, where they are able to write and draw their own tasting notes in the air.
The brush they ‘write’ with creates a stunning ribbon effect that perfectly matches the colours and aesthetic of the beauty
image. People can write above, below and all around themselves, walking through their 3D words. And they can delete
their tasting notes using a scissor controller that cuts the ribbons and erases the script.