Immersive technologies: how to cut through the noise
Immersive technologies can help brands differentiate, stay close to consumers and drive engagement, overcoming the three main challenges of signal, distance and time.
In a noisy digital world, they provide brands with an ‘Alice moment’; a way of keeping consumers connected for longer while also giving them control. Importantly, they create an incentive to return to an experience again and again.
Whereas mobile has the potential to make a brand omnipresent, it is a ‘flat experience’. Immersive technologies, on the other hand, grant a platform for consumers to be ‘in the moment’ in a way that is multi-dimensional and multi-sensorial. They offer high value in the attention and experience economies.
Immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) represent a new form of computing – one that is driven by natural controls such as voice and gesture. Just as the PC and then mobile phone radically changed the brand marketing landscape, immersive technologies are here to stay and need long-term strategic investment for effective integration. Real value will come from marrying these technologies with the rest of the organisation’s tools and systems. To get to that point, brands need to understand and experiment – as well as measure return on investment – to find the right path for them.
Such technologies will launch brands on a flight of imagination, to dream and come up with more interactive scenarios. It will push them not only to move beyond the confines of the screen, but to revisit their discourse with customers and consumers – and become innovators again.
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