Engage Your Audience with Immersive Marketing
Looking to make a major impact for your next campaign? Try immersive marketing.
During Viral Access’ last project, we partnered up with Surprise Lab and Home Hotel to present “The Great Tipsy” to the participating micro-influencers. Now, if you’re following our social media posts closely, you might already know that The Great Tipsy is a type of immersive experience that Surprise Lab is specialized at.
So the question is, what is an immersive experience and how would it affect marketing?
Immersive Marketing
We are pretty sure that as marketers you must realize that digital marketing world is full of marketing jargon. Immersive, experiential, and multi-sensory are the new marketing buzzwords that are used to describe content that includes video, events, or experiences.
In conventional marketing, a successful content usually manage to deliver clear brand messages to potential customers across various social media channels and media.
Immersive marketing goes beyond that.
With immersive marketing, a stellar content doesn’t just deliver brand messages but also gives customers a way to actively engage with the content.
Why it matters
Storytelling is always the heart of content marketing. Print, TV, even social media ads all usually tell a specific narrative tailored to brand audiences. But with so much noise in social media today, the traditional two-dimensional story trend is slowing down as customers are looking for real-life, relatable experiences more than ever.
Indeed, interactive ads are certainly engaging, however, customers cannot download tangible content experiences into their devices. Immersive marketing thus turned this setback into an opportunity. It focuses on turning the audience’s live interactions with a brand into powerful advertising materials that are highly engaging.
With The Great Tipsy, for example, the participating micro-influencers are transported into a Wonderland-esque setting and presented with a compelling story, with various “fantasy” characters such as The Prince, the Witch, and the Lobby Man.
More than ever, these characters give the participants a chance to be part of the narrative by involving them into the story line via a game of choice. Basically the influencers are given missions and questions and they can proceed to the next chapter of the story based on their answers or choices.
As such, the influencers naturally become a part of the story, which is an exciting and real human experience even though there are no cameras rolling. After the event, they share their experience based on what they feel and have gone through with their followers.
Because it tapped into their real emotion, the content doesn’t feel promotional at all, which is exactly what brands need, for influencers to directly engage their targeted audience in a non-intrusive way. This is why, immersive marketing works very well to convert customers into brand advocates.
Immersive marketing and technology
Today’s immersive marketing focuses on two elements: experiential and digital.
Experiential immersive marketing focuses on plopping consumers into the middle of a real-life story, while providing a personal, specific, targeted, and lasting interaction with customers. It is a message that consumers can feel and touch, much like The Great Tipsy.
The digital part of immersive marketing, meanwhile, is usually linked with the rising popularity of AI and digital technologies, such as interactive video content, augmented reality, and virtual reality. These technologies fundamentally change the way audiences interact with content. Instead of watching or absorbing content passively, the users feel like they are a part of the action.
Here are some of the examples from real-life brands.
Gucci’s “Try On” shoes
One of the main reasons retail brands invested in AR technology is to help customers make more informed purchases. Gucci’s AR feature in its app exactly aims that by letting their users to ‘try on’ sneakers.
Users can see a digital overlay of 19 different sneakers on their own feet. Switching to different pairs is as easy as swiping left or right. Moreover, the app also allows users to take pictures that can be shared on social media or messaging apps.
By giving customers a visual representation of how a product will look like in real life, Gucci’s AR technology has the potential to reduce returns and boost customer satisfaction.
Oreo’s The World of Flavored Cookie
Oreo’s 360° interactive world video is filled with chocolate treats that takes curious audiences on a whimsical journey through a ‘wonder vault’. After being transported through a life-size oreo cookie portal, the audience will move into a magical land filled with milk rivers and the brand’s latest creation.
With this VR-integrated video and fun graphics, Oreo successfully captures their audiences’ attention!
Getting started
Early adopters of immersive marketing are certainly enjoying a competitive edge, but it’s only a matter of time until the usage of VR, MR, or AR becomes common.
So, it’s essential for brands to understand the importance of pushing the boundaries with immersive marketing to transport the audience to any time or place, hence creating an emotive experience that will get your brand message across.
Here are some tips you can consider.
Invest in AR/VR content
Depending on your budget, you can invest in a simple 360° photo or a full 360° video of several minutes. Go based on your marketing goals.
Distribute your content
Don’t just produce a one-time immersive marketing content. Scale your content across social media channels to reach more audiences.
Strategic use of influencers
Leverage the influencers’ unique brand identities and aesthetics to increase engagement and build meaningful relationships with your customers by providing them with tangible messages and lasting memories through relatable immersive marketing experience.
So, have you ever had immersive experience before?
