Fancy training with the England Rugby team?

‘Wear the Rose’ is a fully-immersive, virtual reality experience that, using Oculus Rift technology, lets you ‘train’ with the England Rugby team.

Joss Davidge, managing partner of brand experience agency BEcause, is constantly searching for the best marketing ideas out there. This week, his eye has landed on a campaign combining virtual reality and rugby.

With the 2014 RBS 6 Nations going on, rugby is everywhere: in the bars, and on the box; you can’t escape it.

Because of this, I couldn’t help but be charmed by this great, well-timed brand experience combining rugby and virtual reality brought to us by O2 and the English Rugby Team.

Whether it’s the inspirational team talk from Captain Chris Robshaw or just seeing what it’s like to be part of the clan, as far as I’m aware this is the first glimpse at the potential of this technology for the sporting world.

‘Wear the Rose’ is a campaign that will turn heads – literally - you can look around you in every direction! It took a whopping 160 hours of footage, captured with 9 GoPro cameras to give the viewer this 360 degree experience.

Through partnership, O2 have created an engaging virtual brand experience that immerses fans into the rugby world, and brings their own sponsorship deal to life.

I couldn’t seem to track down exactly where and when devoted fans will be able to try out the headsets, and many a rugby fan, me included, are waiting with bated breath to find out and try it out.



Combining sport with brands can prove a winning combination, and over on the BEcause blog there’s a post about the Sony Walkman’s waterproof music player which was sold inside a bottle of water and distributed via vending machines in sports centres all over.

Read more from Joss Davidge.