Shear Brilliance in No Money Marketing
The Faroe Islands with a population of just over 50,000 was not covered in Google’s Street View Program. But Faroes’ resident, Durita Dahl Andreassen wanted to share the beauty of her native islands with the rest of the world. She wanted to petition Google to have the Faroe Islands included on Google Street View. With sheep equipped with solar-powered 360-degree cameras and the support of Visit Faroe Islands, Durita collected images of the Faroe Islands to be uploaded to Google Maps.
To quote the google blog, “When we herd about the Sheep View project, we thought it was shear brilliance. So we decided to help the Faroese by supplying them with a Street View trekker and 360 cameras via our Street View camera loan program.”
Volunteers could now assist the sheep in capturing even more images of the beautiful archipelago. The project was completed and the Faroe Islands are now available on Street View.
But the story doesn’t end there, of course. Last year the Faroe Islands launched a campaign where 100 volunteers would work on the island and repair hiking trails and so on. It was supposed to start now, but unfortunately the COVID19 lockdown has played spoilsport.
Yet again the Islanders have come up with a low cost tech solution. We have created a new remote tourism tool, the first of its kind. Using your phone or computer you can explore the Faroes’ mountains, see its cascading waterfalls and spot the traditional grass-roofed houses by interacting – live – with a local, who will act as your eyes on a virtual exploratory tour. The local is equipped with a live video camera, allowing people to not only see views from an on-the-spot perspective, but also to control where and how they explore using a joypad to turn, walk, run or jump!
Just like a real-life computer game, the main player will control the moves of the Faroese islander, who will not only explore locations on foot, but also take to the skies by helicopter, giving virtual visitors a bird’s eye perspective.
High tech meets No Money Marketing on the Faroe Islands.
