Here are six essential steps to create memorable immersive experiences for your customers.
Key Takeaways:
- Define the big picture
- Focus on great storytelling
- Engage all senses
- Integrate the right technology
- Customize the experience for each user
- Make the experience interactive
In today’s competitive business environment, where businesses must offer unique customer experiences to thrive, implementing immersive experiences can be a game changer. It can make your brand more relatable, helping you connect with your customers at a whole new level. Forward-thinking companies are increasingly embracing 360-degree content, digital twins, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) to unlock previously unseen opportunities for branding and marketing. To get your best foot forward, you should too. Here is how you can implement immersive experiences in your company.
1. Define your purpose
To be effective, you must begin with the end in mind. This means having a clear picture of what you want to achieve through your immersive experience. Are you looking to increase brand awareness? To educate? To entertain? What should the core experience be like? Answering these questions will guide you in developing a plan and strategy and deciding which immersive technology is best for your specific application.
For example, The Grove Experience Center is a state-of-the-art briefing facility designed to showcase Google’s position as a technology leader by delivering dynamic interactive experiences to guests, partners, and clients. Its purpose is to redefine the visitor experience by combining hospitality, technology, visitor-centered design, storytelling, and architecture touch points. As a result, the Grove Center uses Google’s experiential technology throughout the facility to ensure visitors have an authentic experience.
The next step after you’ve defined your objectives is to create a great story to capture your audience’s imagination.
2. Tell a great story
Great storytelling is what makes an immersive experience shine and become memorable. You should weave a simple and meaningful narrative that’s relatable to your audience to ensure efficient message delivery. Remember, each story has a cast of characters. Therefore, you should consider your audience’s role in the story.
The National Holocaust Centre and Museum’s commemoration of the Holocaust is an excellent example of how you can use immersive technology for impactful storytelling. In this application, visitors learn about the Holocaust through captured testimonials from survivors, which are presented as interactive, life-sized 3D models. They can ask questions and get pre-recorded responses from the survivors. You can use a similar approach to answer some of your business’s commonly asked questions and help customers learn more about your brand and values.
3. Engage the senses
Your immersive experience should evoke your audience’s imagination and emotion for maximum impact. This means engaging the senses through the air’s feel and smell, the room’s temperature, imagery, and sound.
Illuminarium Experiences’ reprogrammable immersive theater is an excellent example of how companies can get creative with multi-sensory content. It takes visitors on an epic virtual safari to Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa, where they explore exotic animals – like the Big Five – and the regions’ beautiful scenery. The experience blends scent, in-floor vibration, 3D audio, and 4K laser projection, helping guests feel like they’re on a real safari.
4. Choose the right technology
Technology is crucial when creating immersive experiences. However, it must integrate seamlessly with your physical space and story. Some of the technologies to consider include:
- Project mapping: This technology enables you to display videos on any surface.
- LEDs: QLEDs are ideal for applications that require exceptional color and brightness, while OLEDs are suitable for wider viewing angles, color tracking, and contrast.
- Interactive displays: These can engage, inform, guide, and more. Advanced interactive displays have features such as multi-touch support and gesture recognition.
- LIDAR sensory technology: This technology can help monitor movements (like when someone enters a room) and trigger interactive elements.
- Audio technology: Haptic speakers can provide more accessible audio, while beamforming is the best option for creating sound localization.
After determining the right technology for your application, the next step is personalizing your users’ experience.
5. Personalize the experience
Consumers are always seeking more unique experiences than the ones they currently have. Therefore, personalizing user experience can be a great way to stand out and achieve more impact. For example, you can create personalized RFID badges for visitors that trigger a greeting in their native language when accessing specific areas of your facility.
Another way to personalize your customers’ experience is by using machine learning to analyze their behavior and provide high-quality recommendations and more meaningful rewards. Remember, the goal is to create an immersive experience that’s responsive to your customers’ needs.
6. Incorporate visitor interaction
Incorporating visitor interaction is one of the best ways to engage your customers, as it allows them to take an active role in the experience. As a result, they feel more empowered in the stake of the outcome, leading to more buy-ins.
The Battle of Bannockburn Visitor Centre’s motion capture is an excellent example of how interactivity and immersion combine to deliver an enjoyable experience. It includes touchscreen technology and terrains, allowing visitors to compete on a virtual battlefield, generate troop movements, and more.
Another good example is Lowe’s interactive in-store navigation app, which uses geolocation and mapping technology to help shoppers locate products faster and reduce buying friction.
Collaborating with an expert can ensure your immersive experience becomes a success.
Create a memorable immersive experience for your customers with Shockoe
Immersive technologies can transform how you interact with your customers and power new growth. It can help you solve critical business pain points, change perceptions, drive empathy, and improve brand loyalty. For the best chance of success, you need to clearly understand what your immersive experience aims to achieve and how it will satisfy your customers’ needs.
Having an experienced partner like Shockoe when implementing immersive experiences in your company can give you an edge. We help you create unique experiences that reflect your brand’s values and resonate with your audience to keep you at the front of their minds.
Innovate strategically with Shockoe. Contact us today to learn how we can take your company’s immersive experiences to the next level.
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