Givaudan is an international company that manufactures flavors, fragrances, and active cosmetic ingredients. It is the world’s largest company in the flavor and fragrance industries. They know the world’s appetite for new flavor sensations knows no bounds. That’s why Givaudan believes discovery is high on the priority list. To explore, discover, identify, and capture the unexpected, locating ingredients, foods, and beverages that entail citrus, they often travel to the University of California at Riverside, home to the world’s premier citrus collection.
In 2019, Givaudan introduced VR into its technology base for business-to-business presentations and demonstrations.
Givaudan’s Citrus Variety Collection houses over 1,000 varieties of fruits from around the globe. However, due to everyone’s busy schedule, sending executive clients and their teams to UCR as part of their TasteTrek experience is often difficult.
Using VR to Bring People to Experience Their TasteTrek Experience
To overcome these scheduling hurdles, Givaudan uses its new MiniVAS system (a machine that outputs aromas to users) and VR to truly immerse their potential clients in how they co-create these flavors and fragrances without executives ever having to leave the office.
Givaudan hired Groove Jones to create a Virtual TasteTrek Citrus experience that transports clients into the grove, where they can learn about the different citrus profiles and experience the flavors and fragrances.
Combined with Givaudan’s proprietary MiniVas fragrance system, we can synchronize any flavor and fragrance profile with the headset’s display.
The MiniVas is attached to the Oculus Go headset so the participant can receive the corresponding fragrances.
The Virtual TasteTrek
The virtual Virtual TasteTrek Citrus tool is a 4D experience where multiple people can explore the Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection found at UCR alongside principal Flavourist Geoff Marshall-Hill and curator Dr. Tracy Kahn.
We accomplish this through 360-degree videos shot at UCR integrated with Givaudan’s MiniVAS system, a hardware solution that allows us to simulate the fragrance of any variety of fruits that the user selects.
Instructor-Led Management System and Dashboard
Groove Jones’s unique multi-user server tool allows an instructor or flavorist to control the group’s experience. This tool is both a narrative and fully interactive demonstration tool and a research and development tool. A group of clients can sit with a Givaudan flavorist within the same VR experience and co-create a flavor profile by adjusting keys built into the VR scene.
We built a PC-based Instructor Dashboard that allows a flavorist to control the VR content that the participants are viewing and interacting with. The Dashboard has tools that allow the instructor to play different videos, turn on and off the controls so the participants can adjust the flavors that they are working with, as well as a viewing mode to see where the participants are looking.
Touring the Citrus Groves
When viewers first enter the experience, they are brought into a futuristic hub above the University of California Riverside citrus groves. From there, the sales team will use a simple server interface to guide clients through a 360 introduction video highlighting what they will experience in the grove. A 360º origins video that teaches them about where citrus varieties come from, and finally, a video that explains the impact of citrus greening disease on groves around the world.
The Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection was found at UCR alongside principal Flavourist Geoff Marshall-Hill and curator Dr. Tracy Kahn. Geoff and Tracy take the user on a TasteTrek through the different varieties of fruit available there.
To make these videos uniquely come to life, Groove Jones utilized a drone and an RC rover system with the Insta360 Pro to capture cinematic, stereoscopic views around and above the groves at UCR.
Once the flavorist completes the main 360 videos, they will bring them to the Virtual Citrus Variety Collection, where they can smell thirteen fruits from the collection and learn more about them during 360 tasting videos with Tracy and Geoff.
Special tabletop shot close-ups were used for the flavor creation portion of the production. Stereoscopic camera shots brought the fruit to life in VR.
Taking the VR Tools on the Road
Givaudan Flavorists will guide clients through a co-creation experience, letting them adjust 2 or 3 distinguishing notes of those fruits, helping them dial in a unique flavor for their product. Bringing the system together was a unique challenge for Groove Jones. We needed to synchronize multiple Oculus Gos or Oculus Quest systems with Givaudan’s unique MiniVAS and AromaComposer technology through a networked PC intuitive for any sales member to set up and use with their client. This is managed through the Dashboard system we built for this specific use.
The tools are being used in multiple countries worldwide. Givaudan’s new Virtual TasteTrek Citrus experience will be a key tool in its sales process, delighting new clients with amazing 360-degree content and delicious flavors.
About Givaudan
Givaudan develops tastes and scents that delight consumers all over the world. Givaudan is a Swiss manufacturer of flavors, fragrances, and active cosmetic ingredients. Together with our customers in the food, beverage, consumer goods, and fragrance industries, Givaudan creates products that delight consumers the world over. From your favorite drink to your daily meal, from prestige perfumes to laundry care, Givaudan is there, inviting you to engage your senses every day, enjoying moments of delight.
As of 2008, it is the world’s largest company in the flavor and fragrance industries. For more information about Givaudan, visit – https://www.givaudan.com. For more information about Givaudan TasteTreks visit – https://www.givaudan.com/flavours/meeting-your-needs/givaudan-treks
Award-Winning Production
Addy Awards – AAF District 10
ONLINE AND INTERACTIVE – GOLD
Category: Virtual Reality
National American Advertising Awards
SILVER
Category: Virtual Reality
Addy Awards – AAF Dallas
ONLINE AND INTERACTIVE – GOLD
Category: Virtual Reality
Vega Digital Awards
CENTAURI
Category: VR & 360 Video – Science & Technology
