The annual Epica awards recognizes global creative agencies & production companies for their outstanding advertising achievements. Judged by journalists from the marketing, design and advertising press, this year was the first time that virtual reality was added as an official category.
This year’s event took place last week in Berlin, Germany and we are pleased to announce the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners for 2017. AR/VR Magazine had the privilege to be invited to the judging panel with a very diverse lineup of entries to pick from.
Gold Winner:
“Back to Life in Virtual Reality: RHOMALEOSAURUS & GIRAFFATITAN” By Framestore
This year’s gold winner was “Back to Life in Virtual Reality: RHOMALEOSAURUS & GIRAFFATITAN” by Framestore. The client was Google Arts & Culture to promote the London and Berlin Natural History Museums.
Silver Winners
“Gender Switching VR” by Birdman Inc.
There were two silver awards this year. The first was “Gender Switching VR” by Birdman Inc. The client was the Japanese condom manufacturer Okamoto and was created to raise awareness of condom usage in Japan.
According to Okamoto “We decided to create a VR content allowing the users to experience the true feelings o their partners: “Gender Switch System”. This VR movie allows you to take a look into your partner’s head, and hear its ‘inner voice’ as the story proceeds.”
Google Earth VR by Google
Google again as the second Silver winner for Google Earth VR, which is awesome. Enough said.
Bronze Winners
There were three Bronze winners including:
“Audi Enter Sandbox” by POL for Audi – Norway
Featuring a physical, in-store sandbox, the experience allows you to create your own physical track in the sandbox, then scans the track and then allows you to drive a virtual car through the track that you created.
“ChistmasFlight” by McCann Buenos Aires for Latam Airlines – Argentina
As a way to give kids on late night Christmas Eve flights a way to experience Christmas, the airlines somehow did a projection of Santa in the clouds, so the children could see it out their windows. Not exactly sure how this “technically” qualifies as AR or VR, but it was a cool idea and touching.
“Samsung Life Changer” by Cheil France for Samsung Electronics France
Samsung worked with Cheil France to create an entire popup VR theme park in France to promote Gear VR. Pretty impressive.
Summary:
We are in exciting times to think that VR has reached a point where it is being considered as a mainstream award category. Overall, it was a great lineup this year of mixed experiences, both VR and 360° video. While some entries were a bit on the cliche side, for the most part, there was a surprising selection of innovative campaigns to judge.
We would like to congratulate all the winners of this year’s event and we look forward to next year’s selection!
For more information on the Epica Awards: Click Here.
Sean Earley is the Executive Editor of AR/VR Magazine & co-founder of RobotSpaceship Podcast Network. He is the Director of New Biz Development and Publishing at KEMWEB, a musician, producer & consultant. He loves guitars, VR and coffee.
