Channel 4 "Azana Band | Kiss Me First" by 4Creative

This month Channel 4 puzzled viewers with a primetime TV ad promoting a tech innovation called AzanaBand, claiming to be "the world's first sensory gaming device" stimulating fear, pain and happiness.

The promo was actually part of a marketing campaign for new thriller Kiss Me First, which tells the story of a lonely teenage girl who is addicted to a fictional online gaming site and whose characters escape everyday life through virtual reality to a world called Azana. After watching the Azana Band TV ad, viewers were directed to a website where they discovered that the product, which is worn around the neck, "brings virtual reality gaming to life." Channel 4 teamed up with Bristol-based YouTube gamers Hat Films to publish an "unboxing" video titled "*Real pain* in VR!" on their channel – the first time that the broadcaster has worked with influencers in that way. The campaign was created by Jack Croft, Stacey Bird, Anne-Grit Maier and Francesca Van Haverbeke.