Cinematic VR experiences have become a content cornerstone for the medium, but they exist in an awkward PR limbo. Videogaming outlets don’t usually cover them because they’re, well, not games, and film media avoid them because they’re not quite a full-length movie. But with some well-planned acrobatics, we maneuvered right under that PR limbo bar and secured some excellent coverage for Secret Location’s VR cinematic experience The Great C.

Thankfully for us, The Great C is based on a brilliant short story of the same name from legendary sci-fi author Philip K. Dick. You read that right – Secret Location managed to create the first ever VR adaption of a Philip K. Dick story, whose work is practically a no-brainer for VR’s inherent sci-fi futuristic qualities. Naturally, we leaned heavily on this tidbit when drafting pitches and media facing materials as the man behind so many iconic stories still pulls weight.

Media rarely write complete reviews for short VR experiences, so we honed our outreach around the news and more top-line impressions pieces. Harkening back to when we revealed The Great C, we still needed to reach prominent entertainment and business media that VR industry insiders and at-home VR users read.

To create the biggest buzz on launch day, we pitched and prepared much of our media under embargo, getting The Great C covered with major entertainment outlets including Variety and SYFY WIRE. We even landed a mention in Forbes’ breakdown of the week’s biggest VR news. While it was certainly no surprise – Secret Location releases some of the best VR content around – The Great C received highly positive impressions from influential VR outlets Road to VR and VRScout.

To supplement the lack of formal reviews, we pursued unique coverage opportunities such as a reader giveaway with one of the top VR sites, UploadVR. We also tapped into our bank of relationships with YouTube’s top VR influencers by working closely with channels including Nathie, Rowdy Guy and Virtual Reality Oasis, all of whom really advocated for The Great C.

Needless to say, we did some “great” work on The Great C! Unfortunately, our talent for PR doesn’t always translate to funny jokes – as we just proved to you…

Be sure to check out the links below to see some of our top coverage from launch.