The Future of the Experience Economy
How venue owners and experiential brands can leverage new technologies to step up their game
The experience economy is rebooting, as evidenced by surging ticket prices in recent months. Vaccinated fans can now safely return to stadiums, arenas, or venues to cheer on their favorite teams and performers, but venue owners and experience providers are facing heightened consumer expectations to reinvent the on-site experience. According to data collected by Event Marketer, consumers are 10 to 15 times more likely to attend an event when they have the option to upgrade or personalize that experience.
Not only do venues have to assure fans that it is safe to come back, they also have to convince them that the in-person experience is better than, or at least comparable to, the virtual experiences that people have become accustomed to over the past 17 months. As a result, entertainment venues are increasingly relying on technology and digital services to enhance guest experiences, eliminate friction, and provide additive experiences.
As the next normal of the experience economy settles in, let’s take a look at the key trends that will come to define it, as well as the new roles that brands can play in it.
Public Health, Safety, & Operations
Public health is the primary concern for fans looking to once again capture the magic that comes from attending an in-person event. Venues and businesses are taking all measures to earn fans’ trust and ensure their safety, such as creating dedicated sections for vaccinated fans (as many of the major sports leagues have initiated), to various on-site VIP package giveaways. Performance theaters have established “full capacity” sections for people who show proof of vaccination and “physically distanced” sections for others. In some cases, exclusive performances or concerts have been put on for vaccinated fans only, such as the one that Foo Fighters recently did at the Madison Square Garden.
Leaving aside public health concerns, many new ways of ensuring optimal fan experience will remain the norm. No one will complain about mobile ordering for concessions or faster ticketing lines, as it means more time for fans to enjoy the event. YinzCam, a company that has built the majority of the official mobile apps for various NFL and NBA teams, is integrating Clear’s identity authentication system, which will allow it to use leverage facial recognition to identify fans when they buy mobile tickets and enter venues with those tickets. Moreover, the apps made by YinzCam will also add COVID-19 vaccination status to user profiles, and use Clear’s biometric tech to verify a user’s age when buying alcohol or participating in sports betting.
Besides using technologies to enhance the health and safety protocols, many stadiums and entertainment venues are also strengthening their cybersecurity efforts to thwart off frauds and potential threats. These threats target critical business services such as point of sale (POS) and IT infrastructure, and the personal devices in attendance. Venue owners increasingly need to demonstrate clear investments in data security and protecting the privacy of the fans.
With these safety concerns in mind, some venues turned into a test facility for partners and technology companies to develop next-level guest experiences in arenas and stadiums worldwide. Some high-tech stadiums, such as the Allegiant Stadium (home of the Las Vegas Raiders) and the SoFi Stadium (home of the Los Angeles Rams), are working with tech companies like Cisco for crowd management and parking lot optimization.
Digitally Enhanced Enjoyment
Technology brings a new digital and interactive layer to the in-person experience, and many venues are frequently experimenting to see which implementations can enhance the fan experience they provide. Many sports teams like the Dallas Cowboys have installed high-capacity lens antennas to boost signal coverage inside the team’s home stadium, bolstering 5G signal strength for fans inside the venue to ensure that fans will have unrestricted access to the connected experiences on site.
Augmented reality has found new uses cases, including a carefully replicated Dodgers home dugout for an augmented reality experience where fans can sit and take a picture with active players superimposed on the resulting image.
Capitalizing on the rapid growth of NFTs, at the start of the NBA Las Vegas Summer League in August, NBA Top Shot partnered with the NBA to create digital collectibles out of distinct moments from the NBA’s Summer League and distribute through a kiosk. This on-site Top Shot Kiosk will enable fans to purchase a Top Shot Moment in the arena of the game they just saw and bring them home.
The use of digital bidding and auctions, now often powered by blockchain, is also starting to gain traction. The Kansas City Chiefs, among some other NFL and NBA teams, has partnered with the memorabilia auction platform I Got It to sell game-used memorabilia, such as jerseys, cleats, and balls, all autographed by various Chiefs players. The auctions take place over the course of the game, and are integrated into the team’s mobile app and website, allowing in-person and remote fans to be able to get in on the action.
For live performances like concerts and shows, fans can expect the live-music experience to be bigger, bolder, and more immersive than ever. Design companies are developing new ways to take visuals that were once reserved for set fixtures and place them all around arenas.
Advances in AI software are automating the creation of stunning visual effects that are adding new dimensions to performance spaces. At the end of 2020, XR Studios collaborated with multimedia studio Moment Factory to put on Billie Eilish’s virtual concert, and featured a gigantic animated spider surrounding the artist as she moved around the stage, and used fans cameras to have their faces pop up and float around Eilish as she performed. Not only did this enhance the concert experience, the use of AR visuals also drives sustainability efforts as it eliminates the need for assembling and disassembling huge production sets.
The live music experience is set to be enhanced with the help of hearable tech like the AirPods to deliver an optimized sound experience, no matter where you are seated. Companies like Meyer Sound are focused on driving the localization of sound, using connected audio technology to allow concertgoers to have the music onstage piped right into their headphones. Perhaps soon, we will even see the use of smart glasses and other types of wearables that may stream and reproduce offline events in the virtual world to delight fans around the world.
Looking ahead, in-person experiences can also learn from digital experiences and enhance fan participation via mobile and digital touch-points. When the Jonas Brothers held their pandemic-era online shows, fans could request songs via online vote and submit their own visual effect designs to be featured in the virtual concerts. All these tactics of fan engagement could be replicated and incorporated into offline events as well to further optimize the in-person experiences.
Hybrid Access & Virtual Presence
Despite a return to in-person events, the virtual experiences that flourished during the lockdown periods are not simply going away. For companies in the experience economy,
a hybrid model that encourages and offers enhanced experiences, regardless of physical or digital touch-points, will be the way to go.
We expect to see a shift in business models that offer subscription services as add-ons to offers such as season ticket packages. In addition to a standard 20-game ticket package, fans might also receive digital subscriptions that grant them exclusive access to practices, players, or coaches. For concerts, VIP fans may be offered virtual behind-the-scenes access to sound engineers and set crews as they set the stage for their favorite performers. These can also serve as a lead generation mechanism for selling tickets or other hospitality packages that are connected to the physical venue.
The future of events will offer fans the choice of choosing to show up in person, or watch via immersive virtual formats, whether through a VR headset, or through a metaverse environment, a la virtual concerts in games like Fortnite, with each offering different levels of fan engagement. Clear has created secure and frictionless event experiences with biometric authentications, which are being implemented in some sports venues. In the near future, similar technologies might be used to quickly verify the identities of ticket holders and, based on their levels of access, unlock a non-shareable link that offers them extra content such as exclusive backstage peeks or unique camera views.
As more venues become equipped with next-gen connectivity powered by the likes of 5G, WiFi 6, and local mesh networks, some of them are experimenting with the use of 360-degree cameras placed throughout the arena, meaning fans can be in one part of the stadium and yet can see the view from a different part of the building via their mobile device. This was tested last summer at the Indianapolis 500 where a 5G-enabled, high-definition, 360-degree camera was placed on the infield of the track and was used to capture images used for an augmented reality-fueled smartphone viewing experience that took streamers right into the heart of the race.
WNBA players on the Connecticut Sun and Seattle Storm will wear sensors clipped to their shorts during this year’s Commissioner’s Cup championship. The arena also installed computer vision cameras to capture real-time 3D highlights for the broadcast on Amazon Prime Video. The sensors will track data such as how fast players sprint, how often they jump and how quickly they change direction, with data integrated into Amazon’s livestream.
The experience economy is going through a convergence between in-person and virtual experiences, which means either side of the experience economy will gradually become more like the other. In-person experiences must become more digital, providing higher levels of interactivity and ease of access, whereas digital experiences need to add tangible components that may extend the virtual experience into the offline world for deeper fan engagement.
For brands and marketers, that is a truly omni-channel future that will unlock a whole new world of media touch-points, as they explore hybrid and digital activations. These types of activations give brands an opportunity to engage consumers more effectively by offering add-ons and personalized experiences, in addition to compelling stories and content. This creates a whole new set of media and technology partnerships for brands to explore.
