Intu pilots virtual reality experience with Emoji characters
The Intu shopping centre chain is testing its first paid-for virtual reality experience at three of its centres.
Taking place throughout August at Intu’s centres in Merry Hill, Lakeside and Braehead, the pilot enables customers to interact with characters from The Emoji Movie.
Intu is tracking data to measure the success of the pilot before deciding whether to roll out more experiences to its 14 shopping centres. The pilot will measure shoppers’ propensity to pay for VR leisure experiences and the popularity of movie-related VR content.
Intu ran its first complimentary virtual reality leisure pilot at Intu Victoria Centre in Nottingham last December. Customers were invited to step into a virtual winter wonderland and decorate a Christmas tree. In addition, augmented reality was added to Intu’s in-centre app over Easter to bring to life a number of Nick Jr. Characters over the school holidays.
Karen Harris, managing director of Intu’s digital innovation team, said: “We are running a number of trials to look at the benefits of virtual reality and augmented reality in a modern shopping centre environment.
“We think there is enormous potential for these types of leisure experiences to drive up footfall, dwell time and likelihood of revisiting a shopping destination. Data from this trial will be used to understand how we can continue to take this technology forward.”
The Emoji Movie experience involves VR content exclusive to the UK featuring characters and worlds from the film and specially recorded lines from the its main actors including James Corden.
Players are charged £5 and each experience will be generated by a unique QR code.
