Rufus the Hawk probably has a better view of the Wimbledon action than any person paying the steep £2,667 price for a men’s single seat.
For those that have not heard of the twitter star, Rufus is a hawk that patrols the skies over Wimbledon, guarding against pigeons that may interrupt the tennis tournament. Stella Artois, sponsor and official beer for Wimbledon, thought of using Rufus’ “bird’s-eye-view” in their latest virtual reality advertisement.
The ad, not too dissimilar from Nike’s recent Neymar virtual reality marketing scheme, uses the iPhone’s accelerometer so that the viewer can get a 360-degree view of Wimbledon and the surrounding grounds.
The video works best with some variety of a virtual reality headset—Google Cardboard is compatible—and Stella Artois is giving away a free headset on their UK Twitter account. But you can also get a good experience just from opening up the video in your smartphone’s YouTube app.
Stella Artois made an official app in the iTunes store through which to view this, titled “The Perfect Flight,” which is also available on Google Play. There is an online experience as well, which you can visit here.
The only disappointing part of the advertisement is that you do not get exactly what Rufus can see, as the courts are empty for the duration of the video. So you may have to purchase a seat after all.