Context and challenges:Audika testifies to its Virtual Showroom solution

Presentation of the interviewee : Marc Benzonana

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Marc Benzonana is Director of Strategy & Innovation at Audika.

Presentation of the company

Audika Groupe is a hearing aid distribution company. Audika was founded in 1978 and became France's leading network of hearing correction centers. The Group was subsequently acquired by the Danish William Demant Group, the world's number two in hearing solutions.

What was your problem? 

It's important to re-situate the current context in the hearing aid profession. This is a fast-growing, highly competitive market, which has also been highly regulated since the introduction of the 100% Health reform , since it is directly linked to the medical sector. The sector is looking for qualified personnel, but as in many other sectors, employment is under severe pressure. 

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Audika has always been a leader in innovation. 

It is essential for Audika to preserve and maintain this technological lead, and when recruiting new staff we feel it is important to introduce them to our know-how through an immersive and innovative experience at our reference center, the Laboratoire d'Expertise Auditive (LEA) Friedland Paris 8.  

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What were your objectives with this solution? 

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A key event in our industry for recruiting new employees is the hearing aid professionals' congress. So we wanted to showcase our expertise to our future employees. 

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We had multiple objectives: 

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• To provide students with an experience that is innovative, instructive and "fun and playful" at the same time. Affirm our employer brand. 
• The immersive experience must be able to quickly illustrate the work of Audika employees, and provide content on the different professions of the hearing aid specialist. 
• A visit to the site also provides an opportunity to explore the different worlds available in this new flagship. That's why we set out to explore the "digital replica" of the Friedland showroom. 
• In concrete terms, we set up a dedicated "terminal/space" with 2 virtual reality helmets, enabling students to take an interactive tour of the Friedland shop. 
• A giant screen allows the tour to be broadcast. 

Solution and feedback: Audika testifies to its Virtual Showroom solution

How did the Virtual Showroom solution help you solve your initial problem?

Everyone is now aware of the contribution that virtual reality can make to learning. The success of our solution at the trade show confirmed this idea. Discovering through experience, visiting the site and interacting with avatars presenting their jobs is a highly effective way of introducing people to our company and our professions. The addition of interactive games appealed to our audience, a young public who, by definition, have been lulled by video games.

What did you find easy/difficult to set up?

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The Agile methodology used by Retail VR enables us to move forward serenely throughout the project. 

As for the project preparation phase, we had weekly meetings. The meetings were very fluid between the Retail VR team and Audika. The team managed the project very well.

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During the operational phase, we were lucky enough to be very well supported by Gabriel from Retail VR, who was a great help and gave us a lot of hands-on experience.

Over fifty people attended the event.

What are the advantages of this solution?

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The solution is now available on the Retail VR platform. As a result, it can be reused for other projects. That's what reassured us: we've deployed a 3D asset that we'll certainly be using again. 

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Internally, we have already envisaged several uses associated with this experience, in particular a module linked to learning. 

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The aim is to make what we say tangible, to have elements of proof in front of our audience. 

The idea was also to move a flagship store and show students what we do at Audika. 

Collaboration and follow-up: Audika testifies to its Virtual Showroom solution

Why Retail VR?

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I met Adrien Zanelli at Paris Retail Week and we hit it off right away. Adrien showed me the Nespresso demonstration and I was immediately impressed by the project.

What's more, I like working with young companies that have a certain innovative edge.  

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I also liked the fact that we could easily customize certain aspects of the project.

What next for this project?

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Our recruitment manager is already planning to use the virtual tour as a way of differentiating ourselves when recruiting for hearing aid schools. 

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As I mentioned earlier, the training department is considering using the solution to set up a training program specific to certain tools. VR is a remarkable learning tool.