We wrote not too long ago here at BrandWarriors about the term “immersive”, when used in an event-marketing sense, and about how it seems to have gained momentum in recent years. 

That shouldn’t be a massive surprise. After all, a lot of us do tend to associate the term “immersive” with technology such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), the recent launch of Apple’s Vision Pro headset having only further cemented such solutions’ progression into the mainstream. 

But as we addressed in the article we mentioned above, achieving genuine immersion in a promotional event that your brand is putting together, such as a product launch or trade show appearance, will depend on much more than technology. 

So, what are some of the ingredients of truly immersive brand experiences? Below, we’ve set out a few of them. 

Compelling storytelling 

If you were read stories as a child by your parent, or even if you were that parent, you will know something about the power of great storytelling for immersing someone in an alternative world. And of course, storytelling can be one of the most “low-tech” things of all. 

Being able to tell, and be captivated by stories, is central to what it is to be human. So, you should give a lot of thought to the stories that you tell through your immersive brand experiences, and invest imagination and time in ensuring they will be stories that resonate with your target audiences.  That should be the case no matter what technological solutions you might use in tellingthat story.

Engagement of the senses 

The most immersive brand marketing experiences are often multisensory experiences – because of course, life itself is a multisensory experience. 

So, as a general rule, the more senses you can engage with your brand experiences, the more genuinely immersive you can expect those experiences to be. But it’s not just a question of creating spectacular visuals or head-turning sounds for their own sake, as you will also need to evoke the imaginations and emotions of your audiences in all the right ways. 

Whether it’s sight, sound, smell, the feel of the air, or a combination of these senses that you draw upon for your next brand promo event, when you engage these senses, you will also be able to get your event attendees more engaged with your all-round brand story. 

Visitor interaction 

So many forms of brand marketing intervention are ones that can be easily… well, ignored. Even a very good TV or radio advertisement, or a banner advertisement on a website, can only make so much impact – in short, because these forms of marketing place their targets in a largely passive position. A given advert becomes simply an advert, one of the many the viewer or listener might encounter that day. 

With immersivemarketing, though, a much greater emphasis is typically placed on the recipient of that marketing interacting in a meaningful way. 

Whatever form that interaction might take, when such interaction is meaningful, the change in the audience from passive recipient to active participant, can be an exceedingly powerful one. It can make the brand experience more engaging “in the moment”, and more memorable over the months and years afterwards. That, in turn, will help such participants to feel that they have a stake in the given brand, its story, and what the brand can do for them. 

And something we haven’t mentioned so far that will be a key ingredient in making all the above elements of your next promotional brand experience genuinely immersive will, of course, be the staff that you hire for the given event. They, too, will have a fundamental role to play in helping audiences to feel engaged and invested in your brand – so they will need to have the right skills. 

Get talking today to our BrandWarriors about your requirements for immersive event staffing, and we can help ensure that is the case – with all the broader advantages it would bring for your brand.