The Future of Marketing is Here: How Interactive Technologies Drive Customer Engagement
Technologies have already become such an integral part of our daily lives that we sometimes barely give them enough credit for how much easier and more fun many aspects of our lives became due to them. However, some changes are difficult to go unnoticed. One is how much marketing and advertising altered, transforming customers’ experience 180 degrees.
Interactivity — a buzzword or a driving force of marketing?
Interactive ways to reach out to customers are no longer a marketing innovation, and for the past several years, it has gained popularity among advertisers very quickly. Some say that the reason is the attempt to overcome such obstacles as short attention span and ad blindness. Others consider it a way to attract the attention of a lucrative consumer group, Gen Z, who typically ignore advertisements and either skip them or wait for them to end without paying attention to their content. Regardless of the reason, everybody agrees that interactive ads and the application of new technologies are the future of marketing and the best way to establish long-lasting communication with customers.
How does Interactivity reach customers?
New technologies and the widespread use of gadgets gave marketers almost unlimited opportunities to find their ways to customers.
Advertising on billboards dates back to the past century. Today, brands can speak personally to every customer through their private devices. Social media plays one of the biggest roles in this interaction: polls in Instagram stories, active links in posts, playable ads on Facebook, interactive add-ons on TikTok, branded masks on Snapchat, and many more.
Due to the variety of customers, omnichannel advertising allows one to reach the desired audience and consider all the details of a marketing campaign.
What are the ways to ensure an ad’s message is delivered?
It is not a secret that finding the correct channel for customers is a part of success, but what about achieving the campaign's final goal?
The abundance of technological solutions marketers can choose from makes the current advertising era a ‘dream come true.’ When it comes to choosing ‘how to deliver a message’ to a customer, there is only one challenge—how to choose from the variety of options. From VR and AR to CGI ads, from 360-degree product tours to virtual try-ons, from interactive videos to metaverse ads, the sky is the limit.
The Future is Already Here?
While almost everybody encounters AR technologies, interactive videos, and AI technologies on a daily basis, there is still something that seems to be a futuristic solution, even though it has already entered the marketing landscape. This futuristic solution is the metaverse.
From automotive to hospitality, from cosmetics to big clothing brands, many different businesses are trying to establish their presence in the metaverse. Let’s take a look at a few examples of successful metaverse marketing campaigns.
HondaVerse
Hondaverse offers more than just games. It’s a virtual world where young tech-savvy fans can engage with the brand. The Pilot TrailSport game, for instance, promotes teamwork and highlights Honda’s family focus. But it’s not just marketing. The CR-V Maze subtly showcases the car’s toughness, and the Prologue Electric Dash previews Honda’s electric future.
The Hondaverse also gathers valuable data on player preferences, helping Honda tailor products and communication. Plus, it fosters a sense of community, with fans bonding at events like the Hondaverse booth at TwitchCon. In short, Hondaverse is a powerful tool for engagement, innovation, and community building in the metaverse.
Millennium Hotels
Millenium Hotels took an unusual approach to attracting new customers. They created a copy of their real hotel in the virtual world Decentraland that metaverse users could explore using AR technology.
By creating their hotel in the metaverse, Millennium gives potential customers an opportunity to have a virtual tour of real-world destinations, which can increase the number of people who will choose this hotel as their travel destination in the real world.
By establishing its presence in Decentraland, Millennium Hotel kills two birds. First, they position themselves as a business open to new ideas and technologies. And second, they attract new customers by demonstrating to them what staying in the Millennium Hotel is like.
To learn more about interactive advertising, new technologies in marketing, and gamification of ads, please visit gamified.marketing
Maria Bondarenko, Business Intelligence Specialist @Multiplayer
maria@multiplayer.com.tr
