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ABB: Virtual tour of production facilities with international reach
The production premises of the Brno branch of ABB cover an area of several thousand m². Hundreds of employees work here. It was their scarcity that prompted the company's management to come up with the idea of opening the doors of its halls with a virtual tour. They wanted to reach not only new employees. They also needed to present their huge production capacity effectively in the tenders they regularly participate in. And so we were literally given quite a task.
Published 7. 4. 2022
Take a walk through a 21st century production hall!
ABB needs little introduction, a few numbers tell it all: it has been in the digital technology market since 1988 and in that time has managed to build 498 offices in 85 countries and a decent customer base worldwide. In the Czech Republic alone, it has 9 branches (in Prague, Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň, Most and Jablonec).
It focuses not only on research and development of new products and services, but also on production. And it is the Brno production branch, which is one of the largest, that we were tasked with effectively presenting to future employees and business partners - ABB regularly participates in large foreign tenders.
Thousands of m² in one tour
Preparing giant halls at two sites with hundreds of employees and photographing them within three selected dates was not an easy task. Fortunately, everyone did it to perfection. Employees were given instructions in advance on how the shoot would take place. We also brought along a 4-metre high tripod - in addition to the classic eye-level shots, we were able to capture the production halls from an overhead view, from where their vastness was best seen.
Tour in the tones of the company brand
With corporate giants like ABB, we always follow the visual of their corporate brand precisely - both in colour, lines and iconography. The client appreciated this approach and together we fine-tuned everything down to the smallest detail. We created a minimalistic interface with clear ordering and signposts. This way, the visitor could always choose where they wanted to look next right in the frame.
The client edited the texts live
The tour contained a really large number of shots (106 in total). Each of them was accompanied by a lot of infoboxes describing the individual devices or processes. And this was also in English. We therefore had to develop a process-efficient solution that would allow us and the client to process the texts quickly and easily.
We prepared an extensive Google Sheets spreadsheet, where ABB employees added expert information to the individual shots. We linked the spreadsheet to the virtual tour using JavaScript. The result? The text was automatically transcribed directly into the tour within seconds. The client could then instantly check any editing of the texts in the table in the virtual tour. We thus reduced the likelihood of human error and developed premium functionality.
The tour was visited by 2 thousand people from all over the world
After several rounds of comments and their incorporation, our favorite part came - opening the virtual tour to the whole world. We created a custom link for the English version of the tour so the client could send the tour to partners abroad. They could see the modern production halls of the Brno branch in breathtaking quality. The tour was visited by 2 thousand people from more than 60 countries in the first month of its launch. We rate this statistic very well, because it confirms the versatile usability and effectiveness of virtual tours. And the client is of the same opinion.
"The response to the tour from both colleagues and the public has been very good. We are now actively using the tour not only for tenders and certifications by tradespeople, but also for recruitment campaigns on social media."
Pavel Šturma, Marketing Manager ABB
