Six Senses Kaplankaya 360° VR
250 invitations sent to Kaplankaya before it opened.
SIX SENSES KAPLANKAYA · JANUARY 2016
Brief
Six Senses Kaplankaya was a world-class luxury resort and villa development tucked into one of Bodrum's quietest bays. Opening was still months away — but the brand's actual audience, a finite list of guests scattered across the world, was making decisions now: bookings, memberships, villa investments.
Flying every one of them to Bodrum wasn't realistic. Renders, brochures, web tours felt too cold for this league. The brief was clear: don't let the guest "hear about" Kaplankaya — give them a moment where they were physically inside it, before opening.
“Luxury doesn't live in the gift — it lives in the ritual of opening the box.”
Insight
Gifting something luxurious isn't the same as gifting luxury. Luxury is the feeling of being chosen. The moment a guest thinks "this belongs to me" doesn't start when the object comes out of the box — it starts in the ritual of opening it.
So sending Kaplankaya as just a VR viewer wouldn't do. "Open the link in your browser" — out of the question. The box the guest received, the object they lifted out, the thing they placed against their face: all of it had to be Kaplankaya's opening shot. The experience had to begin before it began.
The Idea
We put Kaplankaya inside a gift box.
Inside it sat three things. (1) A handcrafted beechwood VR viewer — warm, tactile, made as if it had come straight out of Six Senses' material vocabulary. The kind of object you remember the moment you touch it. (2) A bespoke iOS app published on the App Store for the guest. Slot in the phone, open the app, and the guest was walking through Kaplankaya's coves, villas, beach restaurant and spa in 360°. (3) A personal card — turning the box into an actual invitation from Six Senses Kaplankaya.
250 boxes were produced and shipped to a curated list around the world. Before opening, Kaplankaya was already in the hands of its guests as a physical, tangible object. In 2016 — when VR rarely entered the world of luxury real estate and hospitality — Six Senses Kaplankaya became one of the first brands to do this.
The Invitation Box
Not a generic gift but a personal invitation from Six Senses Kaplankaya. The ritual of opening the box was designed as the experience's opening shot, so the guest felt something almost whispered into their hand.
Handcrafted Beechwood VR Viewer
Instead of plastic cardboard, we built an object that spoke Six Senses' material language: 250 VR viewers carved from beechwood and finished by hand. What the guest picked up was the brand's own grain.
Bespoke iOS App
Phone slotted into the viewer, the bespoke App Store release fired up: coves, villas, the open-air beach restaurant and spa formed in 360° around the guest. Before Kaplankaya opened, the guest was already inside it.
250 Invitations, Sent Worldwide
This wasn't a public campaign. The 250 boxes were shipped to a curated list of Six Senses' most exclusive guests around the world. Never "for everyone" — always "you were chosen."
Execution
The project pulled physical object production, digital app development, 360° on-site shooting and worldwide logistics under one roof. From concept to delivery, everything was produced by Harikalar.
Scope
- 360° on-site shooting at Kaplankaya — coves, villas, spa, open-air beach restaurant, common areas
- iOS app development and App Store release
- Custom beechwood VR viewer design, prototyping and handcrafted production of 250 units
- Gift box design and personal invitation card
- Worldwide logistics to a curated guest list
Team
- Director & Experience Design: Atilla Baybara
- Technology Development: Utku Olcar
- Operations: Yiğit Sarı
- Client Relations: Şaban Yılmaz
- + On-site film crew and woodworking workshop
Results
- 250 of Six Senses' most exclusive guests held Kaplankaya in their hands before opening — a "I was there" feeling no brochure or render could ever create
- The beechwood VR viewer became a keepsake — guests didn't throw it away, they kept it, showed it; it became a physical extension of the brand
- One of Turkey's earliest VR activations in luxury hospitality and real estate — in 2016, this league had almost no precedent
- Directly supported Six Senses Kaplankaya's pre-opening sales — the curated list's "warm contact" rate lifted after the gift landed
- Client
- Six Senses Kaplankaya
- Year
- 2016
- Location
- Bodrum, Türkiye
- Distribution
- 250 kişisel hediye kutusu, dünya çapında özel davetli listesi
- Technology
- Özel iOS uygulaması, 360° saha çekimi, kayın ağacı el işçiliği VR gözlüğü
- Concept, Production & Fabrication
- Harikalar
- Project Lead
- Atilla Baybara
- Technology
- Utku Olcar
- Client Relations
- Şaban Yılmaz
- Operations
- Yiğit Sarı
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