Samsung’s #BeFearless campaign harnesses the power of VR to help people overcome their fears

Samsung Electronics celebrated the conclusion of its #BeFearless campaign by inviting participants from around the world who had successfully faced and overcome their fears to showcase their newly found fearlessness at activities across New York. This included the #BeFearless event at Samsung 837 on March 10th, the company’s showcase for innovative technologies in the city’s Meatpacking District. Throughout the six month-long campaign, participants were challenged to confront and gradually overcome two of the most common fears –fear of heights and fear of public speaking- using Samsung’s Gear VR and the Samsung #BeFearless app. Over 200 participants from the UAE registered their interest in taking part in the campaign, and four lucky people made it to the final Samsung training.

The campaign, conducted in 10 countries, is coming to an end with 16 participants being invited by Samsung to New York, two of whom hailed from the UAE to celebrate how far they had come in overcoming their fears. Young men and women who were once scared of heights were taken by Samsung on a thrilling open-door helicopter ride over the Statue of Liberty. Others, who once had a crippling fear of speaking in public, participated in arts and drama workshops and performed in front of an audience.

The two-day program culminated with the event at Samsung 837, where hundreds of guests immersed themselves in experiential 4D VR experiences. Another highlight was a panel discussion about the tenacity it takes to overcome fear. The talk, hosted by Carlos Watson, the CEO and founder of the digital magazine OZY, featured Susan Cain, the celebrated author of “Quiet”; David Nihill, who used stand-up comedy to overcome his fear of speaking in public; and actress RaVal Davis, who had to fight rejection to succeed in her career.

For participants, it was the perfect ending to the self-paced #BeFearless program. Using virtual reality technology through Samsung Gear VR, the campaign helped young people to tackle their fears head-on and focused on two of the most common fears – fear of heights and fear of public speaking.

The #BeFearless program is part of Samsung’s Launching People campaign. This year, nearly 5,000 people applied to join the #BeFearless campaign, with many more using the app. Volunteers in 10 countries participated in this year’s program, with seven countries joining for the first time - Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Brazil. For the UAE, Austria and Russia it was the second year of taking young people on a journey to lose their fears.

The #BeFearless VR experiences are available for free through the Samsung Gear VR headset, and have already seen over 300,000 downloads. Prior to the app’s development, Samsung teamed up with medical professionals to learn more about how exposure to challenging situations through virtual experiences can help people master their fears in real life. During a two-week study conducted by doctors at the Yonsei University Gangnam Severance Hospital in Korea, researchers achieved a success rate of nearly 90% in reducing 82 participants’ anxiety of public speaking and heights through #BeFearless VR training.

The #BeFearless campaign is an example of how virtual reality can deliver much more than entertainment and can be used help to improve people’s lives. Doctors around the world are exploring the potential use of VR to treat anxieties, alleviate pain, help people with dementia, and support military veterans fighting post-traumatic stress disorder. Immersive VR experiences are also being used by teachers to improve student learning – in subjects ranging from geography to biology. And for families and friends who live far apart, there is nothing that connects them better than the 360-degree videos experienced through Samsung Gear VR.

Samsung has always been committed to enriching people’s lives through technology, as demonstrated by its #BeFearless campaigns over the past two years, which have sought to help young people overcome anxieties and phobias that were holding them back, through virtual reality.

For more details on Launching People, visit www.samsung.com/launchingpeople