Samsung almost managed to repeat an Oscars product placement stunt similar in scope to 2014’s mega-selfie at the 88th instalment of Academy Awards which took place last Sunday. Almost. As revealed by the director, producer, and popular YouTube creator Casey Neistat who cooperated with Samsung over the weekend in order to promote the upcoming launch of its Galaxy S7 flagship and the Gear 360 camera, the popular consumer electronics manufacturer had big plans for this year’s Oscars which were cancelled at the very last minute. Samsung was once again the lead sponsor of the Academy Awards and – as Neistat explains in his YouTube vlog published yesterday – the 2016 Oscars stunt was supposed to promote virtual reality, the emerging bleeding-edge technology which Samsung has high hopes for.
Specifically, Samsung planned to have Neistat surprise everyone during the live broadcast by riding down the Dolby Theater aisle on a skateboard with the company’s new Gear 360 camera in hand. He was supposed to ride past Leonardo DiCaprio, presumably while the actor was going towards the stage to accept his long-sought best actor award. The stunt would then end with Neistat on stage and just like Ellen DeGeneres posted her famous 2014 Oscar selfie taken with the Galaxy Note 3 on Twitter, the ceremony TV team would then proceed to air the VR video. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the stunt was rehearsed on Saturday and everyone was ready for action, the idea was scrapped mere hours prior to the broadcast start.
It’s a real shame we won’t get to see a 360 video result of this concept because there’s no doubt such a recording would have been entertaining for us, and no doubt a big coup for Samsung’s marketing team. It’d also probably make for a pretty cool video to watch in virtual reality, too. Luckily, Neistat still managed to make a 360 clip during this year’s Oscars which isn’t as cool, but is still pretty impressive and can be viewed on his Facebook page, while the aforementioned vlog explaining the entire situation can be seen below.
Samsung’s Gear 360 was announced during last month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain and while it won’t be commercially available until later this year, we already concluded that it’s capable of creating some truly awesome videos. It’s also expected that the upcoming camera will be relatively affordable, though that’s yet to be confirmed.