If you ever find yourself having to wage war against zombies, you might want to call upon RePlay’s Key Snodgress, marketing whiz Andre Lawless (Lawless Marketing) and Hologate’s Gregg Katano. The three ended up at a West Los Angeles location yesterday, Aug. 5, to try the Army of the Dead – Viva Las Vengeance popup VR experience based on the Netflix movie by Zach Snyder. (Snodgress and Lawless have made a habit out of hitting new VR experiences together at tradeshows and in SoCal and lucked out to find Katano there at the same time to do the same thing.)
The experience puts six players in a battle-worthy taco truck on a mission to rescue some hapless civilians within a locked-down, walled-off and zombie-filled Las Vegas. Exhilarating and fun, the VR action was followed by a chance to review your individual ranking (overall score, plus kills, headshots and accuracy), a photo op, merch zone and, yes, even a taco shop with themed food and beverages (the black “Margarita of Death” was yummy).
A key takeaway (pun intended) for this reporter was how it tied directly to discussion during Expo Education Day’s VR sessions about the way out-of-home VR offers an experience that can’t be duplicated at home. Also, it demonstrated how VR can help brands and IP holders have deeper, more meaningful engagement with their customers wherever they happen to be (not just in movie theaters, etc.). Said Bob Cooney, “IP in VR is actually 10 times more powerful than other things for the player because they become that character.”
If you want to enjoy this VR Army of the Dead experience but aren’t in Los Angeles, never fear … it’s traveling to other cities. Visit www.armyofthedeadvr.com to see if it will be near you. The movie is also streaming on Netflix if you haven’t seen it.