Here's a riddle for you. Let's say right now you're enjoying a quiet, scenic trip to Ireland aboard a pair of comfortable VR glasses. At the end of which you find yourself in an actual Irish bar, facing a bulky guy breaking beer bottles using his head; that is, until he sees yours and finds it tempting. How exactly did you get from A to B?
First & final clue: Leavingstone, an agency that's busy putting Georgia on the map in terms of creativity. In 2015, they did it through a shocking price tag attached to a newly launched beer (and subsequent statues of the brave souls that bought the extremely overpriced beer).The first ever Georgian award at Cannes Lions, a Bronze Lion in PR - check.
This year, working with Old Irish craft beer (slogan: 100% Irish), they built an easy to assemble instant bar to prank random pedestrians while keeping them busy under a pair of VR glasses. Bronze Lion in PR for the second year in a row - check again.
So here's another example so that no one loses the never-say-never faith when it comes to crazy ideas. His name is Levan Lepsveridze (Creative Director & Partner, Leavingstone).
Varianta in limba romana a interviului, aici.
Leavingstone, the Georgian agency
We started this digital creative agency back in 2010. The market was small and we grew step by step, together with the digital audience. Last year was remarkable for Leavingstone as we won the first Cannes Lion in the history of Georgia. It was a Bronze Lion in the PR category, the campaign was done for the beer brand 34:
We're named Leavingstone because of Seagull Jonathan Livingston by Richard Bach. We embrace philosophy given in this amazing fable - make the best out of yourself. We believe in perfection that could be accomplished by hard work.
On to the activation
Old Irish was a new craft beer brand with an ambition to attract Georgian beer lovers. We were challenged to raise awareness of this unknown brand in digital channels and make Georgians try the product. So our goal was to ensure a big number of first trials.
At Leavingstone, we always try to do honest campaigns. In this case, we wanted to demonstrate true meaning behind the brand’s promise. We made people to experience the real soul of an Irish bar.
Risky business: the client's reaction
We have several years of partnership experience with this client. Together we’ve made lots of drastic actions before. I’d say we are a good team. We don’t only share the same goals, but share risks and responsibilities as well.
Authenticity
Everything you see in video is 100% real. Those people are actual random pedestrians. We held the experiment for a whole one day and pranked around 20 curious Georgians. After that, we edited the video in an engaging manner. Almost every pure emotion is included in final video.
Production challenges
Of course, the biggest challenge was to build a flexible bar that could be set up in seconds. Besides that, the hardest part was the hidden camera shooting. In order to get honest emotions, it was essential for camera men not to appear visible inside the bar.
Fortunately, with the help of our friends at the Film Asylum production company, we perfectly arranged this shoot that made the "100% Real Virtual Reality"campaign.
