Everybody knows necessity is the mother of invention. The people of the Faroe Islands have shown necessity also can be the mother of creativity, at least with regard to Google Street View.
Islanders were eager to share the views of their resplendent countryside with people across the world – a feat often accomplished with Street View, which captures images with cameras anchored to the tops of cars. But in this case, Google could not – or would not – make the trip to the obscure Faroe archipelago, located about halfway between Norway and Iceland.
Islanders rebuff Google ba-a-ack talk
Undaunted, islanders followed Street View's example. Instead of capturing images via roaming cars, they strapped cameras to the backs of an entity that more freely roams the windswept islands: herds of sheep.
"If Google Street View will not come to the Faroe Islands, I will make the Faroe Islands visible to the world in another way," said islander Durita Dahl Andreassen, who works for the tourist group Visit Faroe Islands. “My home country is beautiful, green and undiscovered to the rest of the world.”
Andreassen might have to amend that statement – at least if her Sheepview 360 campaign succeeds at the level she hopes. In addition to enticing more visitors to the Faroe Islands, the ingenuous, four-legged application underscores the promise that Street View and other video initiatives hold for marketing campaigns. The only provision? They might have to land in the right hands – or hooves.
Take a closer view of Street View
Launched in 2007, Street View was a natural extension of Google Maps. Google unleashed fleets of Google cars to photograph images that were turned into 360-degree horizontal and 290-degree vertical views of cities and locales across the world. On the street, the white cars are hard to miss, with the Google name painted prominently on the side and a camera attached by a tall tripod to the roof.
The resulting panoramas are part art, part science, Google says: “To avoid gaps in the panoramas, adjacent cameras take slightly overlapping pictures, and then we 'stitch' the photos together into a single 360-degree image. We then apply special image processing algorithms to lessen 'seams' and create smooth transitions.”
Initially, Street View covered five major U.S. cities, allowing people to take virtual walks, explore landmarks or find stores, restaurants and hotels. Today, its reach extends to most of the United States, Australia, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Spain and Japan – but not, obviously, the Faroe Islands.
Assert your own view with ADTACK
Street View has captured the imagination of people beyond the Faroe Islands. In New York, for example, developer Dan Vanderkam collaborated with the New York Public Library to create a Street View map depicting the city in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The exhaustive effort includes more than 80,0000 photos, allowing viewers to take a historic tour of the city's five boroughs.
If Street View is triggering sparks in your creative engines, let the experienced and skilled marketing professionals at ADTACK help you realize – and exceed – your vision. After you call for a consultation, they can help you conceptualize, develop and execute a comprehensive marketing strategy – and show you new ways that, like Street View, necessity can be the mother of creativity.
