Our First Boat Show of the Year - How was The Phuket RendezVous 2018 for SW Interactive?

2018 kicked off with The Phuket RendezVous, a luxury event focused on Yachts that unites the most important brands of the industry in Asia.

The superyacht company, Fraser Yachts, invited us (SW Interactive) to their booth, where we could showcase two Yachts of their portfolio in Virtual Reality. During the event, our main goal was to provide important names of the industry with the experience of being on a yacht in Virtual Reality.

Additionally, people that were passing by the booth could also try it because we needed to know their reactions as well.

The takeaways from our demonstration are:

When someone is using the VR headset, everything that the user sees and does go onto the computer monitor which attracts the attention of whoever is passing by. In turn, it makes other people want to give it a try, while some others prefer to spectate but all remain highly interested.

Everyone that experienced being on a Virtual Reality Yacht said that they felt as though they were truly in the yacht and that it was incredibly immersive. After a participant removes their headset we will always here ‘wow’(s).

Furthermore, people even mentioned that they would talk to their colleagues or friends to give it a try. We hear many comments like these - “someone has to see this”, “that was amazing”, “I feel great after the experience”.

Discussion point:

Do brands really need to display all those yachts at boat shows?

One of the topics brought up by several brands is that it is very time consuming and costly for them to take many yachts to boat shows.  Our answer is: it can be reduced with Virtual Reality. We are not saying that VR is able to replace a real boat, but brands would have the ability to showcase fewer boats and have their entire portfolio in Virtual Reality. It also makes it easier for clients to: approximate the relative size of the interior of the yacht, learn which parts are customizable, choose colours and materials, feel a sense of ownership and show their virtual yacht to family and friends.

For the brands, this means that it will be a lot easier to show only the right yacht to specific customers and add the existing customizations to the order of the new boat.

The Phuket RendezVous was the first boat show of the year. Stay tuned, as we will let you know of upcoming events that SW Interactive will be attending.