• by Larissa Faw , May 27, 2016

This summer, JanSport is teaming with AOR Teak for the "Live Outside" campaign that serves as both promotion for the brand and as a travel guide and cultural resource. 

The campaign also represents JanSport's first time developing custom content for Snapchat and YouTube’s VR platform “YouTube 360." 

The concept centers upon Rio de Janeiro and street art with the two companies hosting and filming a celebration that resulted in the creation of a giant mural. The featured artists painting the mural are Mariana Mats from Sao Paulo, and Mateu Velasco and Nina Moraes from Rio; each selected due to their unique and ultimately complementary styles.  

Teak documented these artists and wall progression every step of the way, gathering seven days of video footage and tens of thousands of photos, shooting everything from concept, through creation, to celebration.  

Now, the agency is releasing content from this footage that "reflects JanSport’s spirit of freedom, discovery, adventure, and the self-expression of youth culture," says the agency. 

The campaign appears via outdoor ads in Canada and Mexico. The majority of the content appears on JanSport’s Tumblr page and YouTube channel. The longer-form two-minute clips via JanSport’s YouTube channel will be five episodic pieces that showcase the featured artists and their friends as they conceive and execute their visions. 

Stitched into these videos will be portals to the event’s VR content; 360 degree videos that take the viewer directly to the episode’s location, where the viewer can take in the colors, views, and on-the-ground experience of Rio. 

This is the first time JanSport has used virtual reality in its advertisements and it proved to be a key challenge since 360 VR is not a ubiquitous viewing platform. While this technology makes for an amazing new way to experience content, it is not watchable through all browsers and viewers.  

Currently, only YouTube supports 360 VR through its app and on desktop browsers so viewers need to download the YouTube app on their mobile phone. "And it's even better when wearing VR goggles and switching the content to 'goggle mode,'" says the agency.  

Another challenge is designing this new way of filming content in a manner that is engaging to the viewer. "Before, with one plane of the viewing experience, you had focused attention from the viewer," says the agency. "Now, the view can wander off to a different perspective. As storytellers, we want to be sure they are not missing out on the narrative by re-directing their focus. We have to engage the viewer via a 360 perspective."