Creating impactful brand experiences with new technologies
Chris Williams, Executive Creative Director, and Tony Currie, Creative Director at the Metaverse Continuum Business Group, have been building brand experiences, experimenting with digital innovation, and stretching the capabilities of immersive storytelling to bring brands to life.
As we use cutting-edge new technologies in our creative work, we need to understand how to create more memorable, more engaging, and more impactful experiences for their audiences. Brands can access a whole new world of efficient measurement through data-driven technology. But what are the nuances for landing memorable experiences in the new era? Chris Williams and Tony Currie dug into the details, and answer how the technologies will not only redefine value for brands but have the potential to recreate culture as well.
Let’s focus on more immersive brand experiences. First, Chris believes that we can’t limit our understanding of “immersive” to just virtual and augmented reality experiences. Our worlds are going to start to have a far more digital overlay, where brands will be able to augment probably almost every part of our life, not just with a screen. We’re going to start to see the acceleration of augmented worlds all around us because everything is progressing. Because of this, we will witness how society and culture will come together to accelerate the adoption and growth of immersive experiences.
Tony has a different perspective. For him, the biggest opportunity with immersive brand experiences is the long-lasting effect of a brand experience in this environment. Adverts are easily forgettable, whereas if you create an experience where people actually become part of the story and you empower them to even shape the story to make it personal to them, then it becomes a brand-new experience. It’s going to be memorable, and then it’s an experience that you’re going to tell your friends about. And it transforms how you live your life and some of the decisions that you actually make.
The insights naturally lead from immersive technologies to measurement, as both agree that the way we measure success will change. The granular detail for measuring details is astonishing; you can actually measure where people are looking, or how long people are dwelling on content. There is much more detail than the traditional, passive 2D screen. We measure it because we expect a future in spatial locations for consumers. Linked to this, Chris sees a future where audiences will actually start to be part of that storytelling, and they will expect to engage and create a collaborative experience with their favorite brands.
That said, some longstanding legacy brands will become less relevant in today’s culture if they do not move quickly enough. Challenger brands on the other hand are going in and potentially failing fast, but they’re learning fast too. They’re learning what’s going to work and actually building up a foundation for the future.
How will this work? Tony imagines a near future where you’ll be incentivized to move seamlessly between physical and virtual worlds, using the data that you will own, of course, to tokenize your loyalty, which means that it can and will be measured. Soon, we are going to be able to track everything, and understand the measurement and effectiveness of all of these engagements, all these touchpoints, across worlds, in both digital and physical spaces.
The perspective changes interfaces, too. We may see a future that focuses on just touchscreens, keyboards, or even verbal commands. It’s when all of these different technologies come together that’s when the kind of real magic starts to happen. The brand experience of the future will be engaging and personalized, unlike anything we’ve seen before. Even the most commoditized utility brand will bring value to a customer through informed and value-driven relationships. Imagine receiving valuable rewards based on insights about your energy consumption or insights about your electricity usage, helping you sleep better, read more, or disconnect from a screen more often.
For Tony, everything is going to be impacted, from how we play to how we work, and even how we love. And Tony thinks that the next generation of users and consumers is already immersed in exciting new areas, with personable experiences built around them and their friends’ expectations, where brands are attracting them not with ads and promotions but with attractive and provocative invitations to experience something new.
Who wouldn’t like that?
