Finnish technology company Nokia Corp. announced today the first demonstration of a virtual reality advertisement campaign focused on its new lineup of smart health products.

The campaign makes use of the OZO, Nokia’s high-end professional 360-degree video camera, and shows how virtual reality can be used to assist in e-commerce for the portrayal and sale of new products.

Nokia’s VR ad campaign, “Healthier Together,” is currently premiering at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which runs June 17-24 in France. It was created in partnership with the agency Bandwidth Marketing Group.

As the VR market begins to expand, numerous industries have begun to explore how the new technology can be put to use. Since the second half of 2016, many headsets have come to market too – including Facebook Inc.’s Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive and the Sony PlayStation VR – alongside the proliferation of simple 360-degree video playback on mobile devices, with or without a low-cost mobile headset.

The “Healthier Together” advertisement seeks to sell a panoply of networked personal health products – all Internet of Things connected devices that pool their health data – including a connected smart thermometer, a smart bathroom scale, a camera that can test air quality and a smart watch that can measure heart rate.

“VR was the natural choice to immerse the viewer in a real environment with a real family,” said Rob Le Bras-Brown, chief marketing officer of Nokia Technologies.

As an emerging technology, VR is sought after by marketers because of its immersive quality. Traditional advertising in video uses a single angle of view controlled by a director and displayed on a flat screen. VR gives the viewer the choice of how they want to view the scene and, with a headset, immerses them directly into the three-dimensional environment.

Nokia also released a behind-the-scenes video with the actors and production team showing how the advertisement was filmed. Unlike traditional filming, VR video encompasses an entire 360-degree region, and it’s impossible for a film crew to hide behind the camera. It also provides a problem where the viewer’s attention must be directed to where the action is happening (as activity could happen “behind” the viewer).

A storyboard displayed in the behind-the-scenes video shows why the advertisement is done as if the viewer is peering into four different rooms with clear digital dividers between them, rather than into a single room, which a VR camera can do. With each successive scene change, a room “fades to black” with a swipe that leads the viewer’s attention to the next room in a clockwise motion.

The sensation is odd and, of course, different from the way that a TV viewer might experience an advertisement between shows. Nokia and Bandwidth hope that the immersive portrayal that puts consumers right into the home with the actors making use of the products and that viewing the effect will provide a more personal connection with VR.

Of course, no advertisement is complete without providing the ability to drive consumers to more information about the product or lead directly to a sale.

“Our Nokia VR ad allows viewers to explore and reveal details of the products within the content and go on to purchase with built-in e-commerce and payment functionality,” said Matt Littler, head of moving image at Brandwidth. “This marks a shift in advertising; gone is the ‘created’ reality of standard media, and now we have a far deeper level of truth.”

The VR market remains nascent but is expected to hit $60 billion worldwide by 2021, according to Allied Business Intelligence Research Inc. market research. Retail, commerce and marketing only represents 10 percent of the current industry. Nokia’s exploration of advertising and e-commerce follows other VR activity. Worldpay, for instance, is looking to add virtual credit-card swiping capability into VR environments.

Image: Nokia