MEDIA RELEASE - The traditional chocolate egg hunt was given a new innovative spin this Easter weekend, thanks to an experimental video allowing kiwis to forage for chocolate in the virtual world on their smartphones.

To celebrate this Easter, Vodafone set out to produce its first ever 360-degree video, using a special set of cameras to create an interactive Easter egg hunt online for Facebook users.

Filmed on a shoestring budget and produced in-house, the video became one of Vodafone’s most engaging videos on social media ever - attracting more than 250,000 views in four days.

“We did this for a bit of fun and as an innovative experiment, and we’re delighted people enjoyed it as much as they did,” said Vodafone’s Head of Brand and Insights, Louise Kuegler.

“Lots of people said it was the first time they’d ever seen a 360 degree video, and some liked it so much they watched it more than ten times.”

Filmed at the Auckland Winter Gardens, Vodafone used a special go pro rig to record all 360 degrees of the scene simultaneously.

Viewers were then asked to use their finger or turn their smartphone to pan around the scene, trying to find as many chocolate Easter eggs as possible. All the correct answers went into a draw to win one of ten Vodafone Smart Ultra mobile phones.