360°/VR Image Case Study: The Dallas Morning News

Andrew Beelitz October 25, 2016

The visual media landscape has recently evolved for the better with the widespread introduction of 360° content. ThingLink allows digital teams to effortlessly add a final interactive layer to this content. Take this unique use case from the Dallas Morning News showcasing Jerry Jones’ Valley Ranch office in a 360° format.

Please note: this tour was created in the legacy version of the ThingLink editor. Visit ThingLink to explore the powerful new suite of creation tools!

Source: http://interactives.dallasnews.com/2016/jerry-jones-office/

By adding annotation, a still room is transformed into a tour that provides readers with an incredibly immersive experience. The video hotspots in the tour reveal more information on the history of the office, ultimately increasing reader engagement and time spent within the editorial article. This interactive 360° tour can be viewed on mobile, tablet, desktop, Facebook posts, and VR headsets. 

• Viewers engaged with this scene for an average of 47 seconds. This is great for engagement – the more time spent on the page, the better. 
• The scene realized a phenomenal click-through rate of 145%. The click-through rate is the number of times the links on the image are clicked, divided by the number of times it was viewed.  An above average click-through rate like this provides a strong indication that viewers find the content interesting.

Michael Hogue, Art Director at Dallas News and creator of this interactive 360° tour shares,

“For any company that comes from a traditional print background, ThingLink really hits the sweet spot for quickly turning many print graphics into interactive graphics for their digital audience.” 

Further examples of ThingLink used in Journalism and Communications

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