Nescaf Teams Up With Google For Virtual-Reality Coffee Experience

VEVEY, Switzerland -- Nescafé says it's the world's first coffee brand to provide consumers with a fully immersive virtual reality experience, by transporting them to Brazil's coffee fields using their mobile phones and Google Cardboard, a low-cost VR stereo viewer.

After downloading the Nescafé 360Ëš app, which is available for Android and iOS, a consumer can slip his or her phone into the Nescafé-branded virtual reality viewer. The cardboard viewer casing contains two lenses that provide a stereoscopic image.

Viewers can turn their heads in any direction to experience Brazil's coffee fields depicted through three specially filmed 3D videos accessible via the app, which showcase how Nestlé's Nescafé Plan is helping its supplier farmers achieve better-quality coffee, higher yields and increased income.

The global launch of Nescafé 360Ëš coincided with International Coffee Day on Sept. 29, and involved distributing 10,000 headsets across 13 markets through in-store events or as competition prizes. Non-3D versions of the videos are also available on YouTube.

The Nescafé 360Ëš launch is another digital milestone for the coffee company, which recently moved all of its websites to Tumblr, as it builds upon its social media presence to develop closer relationships with younger consumers.