The Challenge

In 2016, Vroom, the national online car retailer generating over $1 billion in revenue, approached 900lbs with the creative challenge of helping them continue to disrupt the traditional car buying process and deploy a technology focused initiative to position Vroom for the future.

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"Such an incredible experience working with 900lbs, we’re now moving rapidly in to our third project with them. They’re a creative agency the likes of which I haven't encountered before. At the top of the game in terms of smarts, knowledge, speed, flexibility and they live truly on the cutting edge. We’re a billion dollar revenue retailer and we needed completely fresh thinking around a specific retail strategy with technology at its core. We developed this VR showroom and we were blown away by 900lbs attentiveness, creativity, execution and pragmatics. This VR showroom was part of a targeted campaign in Phoenix that saw a significant boost in web traffic."

Gaurav MisraCMO, Vroom

The Experience

900lbs collaborated in close partnership with Vroom to film 15 of their “Affordable Performance” vehicles in 360º video that represent 155 vehicles in Vroom’s inventory. When a user puts on the VR headset they can navigate around the digital showroom then jump inside any car and sit in the driver seat, go on 360º video test drives and access vehicle information (year, price, horsepower, trim package, etc). A user can experience all the standard features of a website in a completely immersive new media. This is the first phase of a multiphase development plan that’ll see more features and vehicles implemented in 2017.

The Solution

This first phase of a multiphase development launched in a Phoenix mall as a pop up retail space allowing guests off the street to experience Virtual Reality and Vroom for the first time. The project gained national interest from Fortune, Tech Crunch, Adweek, Digital trends and others. “This VR showroom was part of a targeted campaign that saw a significant boost in web traffic,” explains Gaurav Misra, Chief Marketing Officer of Vroom.