Like many fine ideas, the Civic 360 experience began with beer and friends.

Musician Moses Sumney was playing a Happy Hour at our agency. His samples and loops were hypnotic and came from a totally unexpected place. That experience dovetailed nicely into the new Civic launch strategy with “You Never Saw It Coming.” We thought, well this could work. But there would be some challenges.

​

So we gave minimal direction on the song, and shot it in an abandoned warehouse, which was a nod to his humble musical beginnings, performing in UCLA parking garages. It was also to prevent latitude of light, which can make VR capture difficult as different exposures come into play. We shot it with a 17mm lens, and captured it in slices which were then stitched together by VR Playhouse and overseen by our production partner, Mssing Pieces. As Moses' music is about creating loops that build upon each other, each loop added a new "Moses" visually. 

​

We timed the release with the much-hyped launch of Facebook 360 and the announcement of the Oculus Rift. There was a lot of VR/360 chatter at that time as well. Launching the video when we did was probably not what the Civic fans saw coming, thus tying in to the strategy, and further making the media part of our message.

Innovation in the social space is about smart risks. Not waiting to see what others do, and then duplicate. VR was taking off and we got in as brand pioneers, even before Google Jump was released. Knowing there wasn’t really a playbook, we created our own. In fact, I became so obsessively curious, I immersed myself the world of VR and wrote an article to help brands navigate the complexities in VentureBeat,