Kellogg's employs VR, gaming to raise awareness of gut health

An immersive VR experience aimed at raising Australian consumer awareness of the importance of fibre for gut heath has debuted from the Kellogg’s team.

The new VR campaign, dubbed ‘Gut Bacteria Reef’, is being pitched as a first interactive experience exploring the human gut. The narrative centres around the analogy of the human gut as much like the coral reef and as a home to billions of organisms that require certain nutrients to survive. Kellogg’s cereals are ingested and shown as the ammunition for nourishing good bacteria and helping wipe out the bad bacteria in the gut.

The education-oriented VR campaign has been produced by Kellogg’s in partnership with TBWA \ Eleven Sydney and tech company, Nakatomi.

Launched during the recent school holidays, the campaign included a partnership with Sea Life Sydney Aquarium to make the VR experience available to visitors. In addition, all packs of Sultana Bran, Special K, All Bran and Guardian cereal in Australia are now including a QR code, which connects consumers to the game version on gaming platform, Steam, as well as to the 360-degree experience on YouTube.

“Thanks to TBWA\ Eleven and NAKATOMI, we’ve combined the science of gut health with the fun of play in an innovative way that will lead to more Australians understanding the complexities and needs of the microbiome that lives in all of us,” Kellogg’s senior marketing manager for Breakfast, Dan Bitti, said.

While results are still being collated, a spokesperson said the aquarium activation tapped into a captive audience of 5000 people a day and received national news coverage.

TBWA\ Eleven executive creative director, Russ Tucker, said the project work took place during various state lockdown, extreme weather events and technical challenges. Nakatomi’s Ben Bray and Andy Timms said the campaign, while oriented at kids, was also being well received across the Steam gaming community.

“Gaming is such a powerful medium for storytelling, and VR is the latest, most immersive way to game. Instead of learning by seeing, players are given the chance to learn by experiencing the gut for themselves,” the pair stated. “We loved working with the team at TBWA\ Eleven to create a beautiful, fun and immersive world.”

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