Government of Catalonia presents “Legends of Catalonia” - First campaign using virtual reality game to promote a tourist destination

The Government of Catalonia presents “Legends of Catalonia”, the first campaign using virtual reality game to promote a tourist destination.

• The game features Carles Puyol, Edurne Pasaban and the Roca brothers and takes place at iconic sights in Catalonia, such as Tarragona’s Roman amphitheater, Lleida’s Old Cathedral, the mountain range of Montserrat, Dalí’s Cadaqués and Barcelona’s Sant Antoni market and Sagrada Família.
• The campaign has been developed in collaboration with SONY, which means the game can be downloaded for free from the PlayStation online store.
• The campaign has been designed around the “Legends of Catalonia” game to promote Catalonia in the USA, given that it is one of the biggest growing tourist markets in recent years and one that generates the most spending.

Thursday, 30 October 2018: The Catalan Minister of Business and Knowledge, Àngels Chacón, presented the new “Legends of Catalonia” tourism promotion campaign together with the General Director for Tourism, Octavi Bono, and Director of the Catalan Tourist Board (CTB), David Font.

During the presentation, the Minister highlighted: “The ‘Legends of Catalonia’ campaign is internationally pioneering and the most innovative ever produced in Catalonia, given that this is the first time worldwide that a government tourist promotion body like the CTB, part of the Catalan Ministry of Business and Knowledge, is using a virtual reality video game to promote a tourist destination.” The goal is to create a totally immersive experience that provides information about Catalonia and brings players closer to “reality” by using “virtuality”.

Àngels Chacón added: “In an ever-changing world in which traditional formulas have to coexist with new technologies, our destination and tourist industry need to use tools like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, gamification or virtual reality to make a difference and reach world markets.”

The game features five internationally renowned personalities: the former captain of FC Barcelona, Carles Puyol, mountaineer Edurne Pasaban and the Roca chef brothers. The game consists of obtaining six medals that will allow players to access the secret diary of Saint George. But in order to do this, the players receive the help of these personalities to overcome six tests that take place at six iconic sights in Catalonia: Tarragona’s Roman amphitheater, Lleida’s Old Cathedral, the mountain range of Montserrat, Dalí’s Cadaqués and Barcelona’s Sant Antoni market and Sagrada Família.

The Minister also stressed: “Today we are presenting a way of promoting Catalonia that combines not only our physical, natural and scenic heritage, but also our human heritage, a new collaboration model to provide support when it comes to marketing our land.”

The game lasts 50 minutes and is available in three languages: Catalan, Spanish and English.

You can view the trailer for the video game at the following link: https://youtu.be/sr6gU-A8p0Q.

The Catalan Tourist Board worked in collaboration with SONY for the campaign launch, which means that the game can be downloaded for free from the PlayStation online store and played using virtual reality glasses this November. It will later also be available online through the Steam platform.

An international team from Catalonia, Spain, Colombia, USA and UK worked intensively over a three-month period to create the game, using the most innovative techniques to capture famous landscapes, settings and personalities in a hyper-realistic manner. For example, photogrammetry (photos that capture real environments to convert them into 3D images) helped to reproduce the appearance of the personalities and turn them into legendary characters, iPhone’s facial capture helped to recreate the characters’ expressions and motion capture was used to instill life into the characters within the game.

Watch the following video to learn more about the process that led to the creation of the “Legends of Catalonia” game: https://youtu.be/FAoS4Zr2J5o.

Campaign for US market

The Catalan Tourist Board has developed an ambitious tourism promotion campaign revolving around the game to promote Catalonia in the USA, more specifically in New York and New Jersey.

The CTB has this year decided to focus its international campaign in the USA, given that it is one of the biggest growing markets in recent years (621,000 visitors in 2015, 864,000 in 2016 and 1.1 million in 2017) and one that generates the most spending (1,183 million euros in 2015, 1,593 million in 2016 and 2,110 million in 2017).

The campaign’s budget is 1.4 million euros, 70% of which has been allocated to media coverage and 30% to integrated production for all channels and creativity.

The promotion campaign of Catalonia has been divided into a series of actions:

-Digital and print advertising in US media ( New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, etc.). The visuals have been designed by Chamo San, an internationally renowned Catalan illustrator who has produced work for the most prestigious companies.

-A 30-second ad is set to appear on the legendary screens of Times Square from 5 to 18 November, one on the corner of Broadway and West 44th Street and a double screen billboard on the corner of Broadway and West 45th Street (the Edge-Broadway).

-Three urban art murals on the streets of New York (specifically one in SoHo and two in Canal Street) designed by Sergio Mora, a prestigious artist who has made a significant impact worldwide.

-Targeted ads using geolocation, so that anyone browsing the Internet in New York within a radius of 2 kilometers from these murals can receive a hit indicating the route to the closest mural.

-An augmented reality application that allows users to pass through a virtual door to visit the game’s settings.

-Creation of the www.legendsofcatalonia.com website with information about the campaign and game, as well as the creation of several landing pages in various online media. The www.catalunya.com website will also be customized because of the campaign.

-Dissemination of the campaign through various social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.).

In addition, the “Legends of Catalonia” game was also presented in the Virtual Reality section of the 51st International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, which took place in Sitges from 4 to 14 October. It also enjoyed a preferential position at Madrid Gaming Experience from October 18 to 21, when visitors were able to try the game thanks to SONY and PlayStation.