ABOUT

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars: Inside Rolls-Royce
 
Brief
 
Represent the supreme qualities of the Rolls-Royce family of vehicles, engaging visitors in a compelling way, shifting perception of the brand towards cool, modern luxury.

Make the brand accessible to all, not only those who can afford to purchase.

Go beyond simply showing the latest car range: engage and stimulate a new contemporary audience, maximising reach and sharability.
 
Creative idea
 
Every Rolls-Royce is designed to be unique; the perfect expression of a customer’s taste, personality and lifestyle.  
 
To stimulate appreciation of this, Rolls-Royce admirers were invited to take a multi-sensory, interactive journey Inside Rolls-Royce, through nine emotionally responsive spaces at the Saatchi Gallery, stimulating all senses and combining aesthetic design with the latest technologies.
 
This was the brand’s first ever public exhibition and will travel on a global tour in 2015 visiting major cities across the US, the Middle East, and China with more stops to be added.

The Rooms
 
Colour room – an innovative digital display using RFID technology to control lighting and sound. Visitors selected a coloured object and watched the room transform to match.

Wood room - an interactive fabric with generative sounds and projected images evoked the beauty and complexity of wood veneers so that each visitor’s experience was unique.

Leather room - a hide-bound sculpture of the Wraith delivered a new perspective on the other key ingredient of a Rolls-Royce interior.

Spirit of Ecstasy room - a stunning installation invited visitors to 'Be the Spirit', briefly transforming themselves into the Spirit of Ecstasy statuette that adorns every Rolls-Royce. Custom software transformed their movements and gestures into an ethereal son et lumiére performance.  

Detail room - a flying sculpture comprising bespoke, furled umbrellas inspired by the hallmark Rolls-Royce feature - the in-door umbrella.

Technology room – an area where guests could configure their dream Wraith then race friends or compete for the best lap time.

Craft room - experts from RollsRoyce were on hand to demonstrate and explain their very particular and highly sought-after skills.

Children’s room - budding young designers could get involved in workshops led by Rolls-Royce Bespoke Design.

Photography room – a dedicated area for Karl Lagerfield photography and VIP guest appearances.

The Tablet Guide

To enhance the visitor experience we created an exhibition guide that would allow the gallery space to remain clear and uncluttered, whilst demonstrating a level of technological innovation to attract interest and reflect positively on the positioning of the Rolls-Royce brand.
 
An app was designed and built to respond to iBeacons placed around the exhibition space. These were used to guide visitors around the exhibition effortlessly and seamlessly, unlocking and pushing interactive content to the app as they moved through the multi-sensory installations and zones.
 
It provided a personal and intimate channel and removed the necessity to overload the gallery environment with any more information than necessary– a key requirement in the overall aesthetic of the exhibition. It also reflected how Rolls-Royce drivers experience technology in the ultimate British luxury car – smooth and intuitive with a single touch/single swipe movement.
 
A total of 25 beacons were placed in the nine rooms of the gallery to unlock content as the journey unfolded. As each beacon came in range, the app automatically moved to the next section – allowing visitors to focus on the physical and digital content, without being concerned with navigation. As simple scrolling interface revealed content at a pace designed to match a visitor’s progression around the show.
 
The iBeacons were incorporated into the exhibition by way of custom illuminated pods with visual iconography to link each beacon with the area of the exhibition.
 
The Inside Rolls Royce experience was one of the first iBeacon enabled events to support both iPhones and Android phones and tablets.

As the exhibition travels to further global cities in 2015, the app is being re-published for each location with fresh configurations of iBeacons. This demonstrates not just its utility as a part of a larger brand experience but also its flexibility and success as a proof of concept for this new positional technology.

The Campaign
 
To tease and to add intrigue for the brand’s first ever public exhibition, Rolls-Royce launched its first ever above-the-line campaign.
  
The London-based campaign ran in the lead up to the exhibition and included a 20” film at Waterloo Station, billboards at Victoria Train Station, LCD escalator screens at main London Underground Stations and a local press print campaign. A 45” film was also created for the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars website, YouTube channel and other Rolls-Royce Motor Cars social platforms.

Results
 
15,207 people visited the four-day exhibition (London, 13-18 November 2014).
 
#insiderollsroyce reached a potential audience of 41.9 million Twitter users.

The app was downloaded 2,463 times during the exhibition with over 57,000 unique page views recorded. An additional 614 downloads occurred post event. However, the objective was not to create a mass-market app, but to use the technology strategically to enhance the whole experience.