What are immersive experiences?
An immersive experience enhances the prospect of many interconnected worlds. It is entertainment for the audience and a powerful marketing idea for companies and brands. Moreover, the presence of a brand established by augmented experience helps up the game in terms of immersive experiences. The concept employs technology, narrative, and interactive factors to engage the senses and blur the boundaries of the physical and digital realms.Role of immersive experiences in enhancing digital interactions
From panoramas to multi-media entertainment in amusement parks, visual realism and sensory engagements are two-way immersive experiences that significantly enhance digital interactions. The former produces realistic images corresponding to reality, while the latter provides sensory engagement alongside realistic multimodal expertise. Immersive experiences combine spatial awareness and interactivity to produce a greater sense of presence, rendering virtual spaces more real, interactive, and engaging. Additionally, they facilitate real-time feedback and adaptive interactions, ensuring that digital interfaces respond seamlessly to user actions.Types of immersive experiences
Augmented reality experiences
Augmented reality is the overlaying of digital elements into the real world. This enhances sensory, auditory, and visual information to make the content more interactive. Devices like smartphones, glasses, and headsets superimpose virtual elements to make customer interactions more immersive. In retail and marketing, augmented reality improves user experience by letting them engage with products in real time. Brands use augmentation to make shopping more interactive and fun, like trying before buying, but without actually trying.Nike has launched an immersive AR shoe try-on feature to promote its latest Nike Pegasus 41 Blueprint Men’s Road Running shoes. The interactive exploration allows users to enter a high-energy state and virtually ‘’wear’’ the power-packed shoes anytime and anywhere. The unique experience is available on the Nike Energy Station WeChat Mini Program and can be accessed through mobile phones.
Users can record their fun AR moments and capture the stunning lightning-filter effects in motion. Moreover, they can also take part in a lottery to win special gifts, including the Nike Pegasus 41 Blueprint Men’s Road Running shoes and Air-themed gift boxes, all for free. This dynamic interaction makes shoe exploration highly realistic and immersive.
Virtual reality experiences
Virtual reality is different from augmentation in that it literally places users inside a computer-generated world, substituting for their actual environment. It is created to engage more than one sense, such as vision, hearing, and touch, with the perception of physical presence in a virtual space. Using VR headsets users can walk through virtual malls, pick up products, and interact with them just like they would do in real life.
Source: Kivisense
YSL Beauty created a ‘’VR Beauty Zone Pop-up’’ at cdf Sanya Mall in Hainan, in collaboration with with China Duty Free Group. The game-changing pop-up experience was a beautiful blend of offline retail and VR immersion to redefine beauty experiences. The campaign used Oculus VR headsets to create a 360° immersive experience. Users were able to check out YSL’s three pillar products, including the Libre perfume and Night Reboot Serum, in an immersive and interactive exploration.
The goal of the campaign was to engage Gen Z travelers during the holiday rush, and it worked. More than 7,000 people tried the experience and spent an average of 5 minutes in the VR world, with a 100% completion rate. This campaign was a huge success and helped the brand get more foot traffic and in-store sales in a very short time span.
Mixed reality experiences
Mixed reality blends augmented and virtual reality elements, allowing users to interact with real and digital environments simultaneously. Using MR experiences brands can make their user interactions more realistic and dynamic. It brings digital elements into the surroundings, where customers can view, touch, and interact with 3D models or holograms.
Source: Kivisense
On May 25, 2024, Ellemen hosted an unforgettable night at Shanghai’s historic Sun Ke Villa. The Livehouse Impromptu Night blended music, fashion, and next-level tech into one exciting event. It featured a live rock performance and a unique collaboration with Ulysse Nardin’s Freak watch collection. Kivisense stepped in with a mind-blowing mixed-reality experience, using Apple’s Vision Pro.
With these Vision Pro headsets, users were instantly taken to a digital world, where they could explore the Freak S Nomad watch with all its minute details. They were able to zoom in, rotate, and interact with the exquisite watch to appreciate Ulysse Nardin’s craftsmanship. The unique MR experience left everyone in awe and proved how tech can enhance luxury experiences in the coolest possible ways.
Applications of Immersive Experiences
Virtual try-on and product displays
Many fashion and beauty brands have promoted virtual try-ons to make shopping easier for their customers. This initiative lets users shop from the tap of a screen while selecting which design suits them best. Virtual try-ons and product displays reduce uncertainty in online and in-store purchases, minimize returns, and enhance customer confidence by providing a hands-on experience without physical interaction.
For example, Burberry has introduced a virtual try-on experience for scarves, where users can see themselves virtually ‘’wearing’’ them. Using mobile phone cameras, they can check out different scarf designs and colors on their snaps in real time. This try-before-you-buy opportunity increases their confidence and reduces the hassle of returns.
Engaging in-store interactions
To develop an interactive shopping experience, most retail spaces are going digital through immersive marketing. From intelligent mirrors to AR-enabled screens where customers can test digital overlays of the products, store designs are gaining popularity through tailored suggestions. Due to real-time product demonstrations, physical trials are now obsolete.
For example, Hearts On Fire has introduced an engaging way to advertise their jewelry pieces. The brand uses AR Magic Mirrors to let users try on its diamond pieces in an immersive manner. Users can get the experience at pop-up events or through the WeChat Mini Program easily. This in-store engagement draws traffic, extends dwell time, and builds engaging shopping experiences that fuel brand affinity and sales conversion.
Experiential marketing campaigns
Brands employ immersive experiences to craft emotionally resonant marketing campaigns that engage audiences and foster deeper consumer relationships. Multisensory interactions blend vision, audio, and touch to heighten interaction. Experiential marketing efforts make lasting impressions, drive brand memory, and facilitate word-of-mouth marketing.
Source: Kivisense Youtube
For example, Huawei has created a mind-blowing AR experience at the “Ten Days Later” Future Home in Shanghai. By opening the Future Home AR mini-program and pointing it at Huawei’s Smart Home authorized store, visitors can witness dazzling neon nightscape effects and futuristic effects coming to life in seconds. Such campaigns utilize interactive storytelling, sensory interaction, and dynamic digital content to amplify brand messaging.
Virtual events and shows
Immersive technology has transformed events, conferences, concerts, and exhibitions by making them fully digital or hybrid. Virtual events and shows increase access, lower logistics expenses, and provide immersive participation opportunities that physical events cannot offer, making them perfect for worldwide audiences.
For example, VOGUE and Tmall Luxury collaborated to create a digital fashion week, powered by Kivisense. The virtual campaign lets users check out the brand’s latest autumn/winter collections and try all kinds of bags, eyewear, and fashion apparel through the Tmall luxury app. They could also interact with brand avatars through AR and snap their interactive moments. The campaign shows how brands can use tech to create virtual events and immerse their customers in interactive explorations.
Benefits of immersive experiences
High interactivity and user engagement
One key benefit of immersive technologies is that they engage the user actively instead of just passively offering content to consume. Because users can interact with the digital space directly, immersive experiences foster greater engagement and create more enduring impressions.
Creates a multisensory environment (visual, sounds, and haptic)
Immersive experiences made through a modern headset are not mindless activities like those of televisions or clocks. Immersive experiences cover vision, hearing, and touch (haptic interactions). This broadens the physiological realism that the user perceives.
Engaging storytelling and emotional impact
Immersive experiences redefine storytelling by converting stories into interactive, first-person experiences. Instead of sitting back and watching or reading a story, users become participants, making decisions that shape the outcome or navigating the story out of sequence.
Real World use cases of Immersive experiences
Livat Shanghai’s Futuristic AR experience
Livat Shanghai’s grand opening was a beautiful blend of local culture with innovation and next-level tech. The event was filled with a number of exciting interactions and explorations. The highlight of the event was the ‘’Innovation Hub’’. By scanning it with their mobile phone cameras, users could enter the fantasy world of Livat Planet. Here, they could step into interactive zones like Planet Forest, Planet Ocean, Planet Wildflower, and Planet Wonderland and engage with digital elements through AR. The event was a beautiful display of how technology can bring people together to connect and inspire communities.
YSL Beauty’s LIBRE Eau de Parfum 3D Experience
YSL Beauty, in collaboration with Kivisense, created an immersive 3D experience to introduce its iconic fragrance, LIBRE Eau de Parfum. The 3D technology lets users explore the unique scent profiles and appreciate the classy couture bottle design up close. The campaign immerses them in an interactive exploration of fragrance and its components through innovative storytelling. This helps users explore and find the perfect fragrance for them without much hassle.
Maybelline NY’s AR & 3D Experience
Maybelline NY launched a playful campaign using AR and 3D, to introduce its Beat Limited Edition Collection of makeup items. The next-generation AR and three-dimensional experience lets users explore and interact with the limited-edition products through mobile phone screens. With just one tap, they could select and try their favorite makeup looks in a gamified environment. This idea initiates a better understanding of exploring makeup through the gamification of products.
Herborist’s “Bo-Bo Rabbit” AR Experience
Herborist, in collaboration with Kivisense, created an innovative AR virtual world “Bo-Bo Rabbit” to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. The AR-powered virtual exploration takes users to an imaginative floral wonderland. In a gamified environment, users can explore hidden factories, labs, and stores. They can also unlock and discover the secret ingredients of Tai Chi series of skincare products. The immersive campaign helped the brand create a lasting impression on users and improve sales conversions effectively.
Conclusion
Immersive experiences are set to evolve with time, and no claim can ever argue that interactive experiences are the root cause of returning customers. This idea is now becoming formidable, among thriving brands and new businesses. Kivisense, which allows virtual try-ons for all fashion brands, is becoming increasingly popular. Contact us now for an everlasting immersive experience.
