Are immersive brand experiences the future of brand communication?
In a world where consumers want more than just products, immersive brand experiences are taking retail to a new level, blurring the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds and creating memorable moments that inform, inspire and connect.
Emotional brand experiences are the key to success
Brands like Renault, Clarins and Diesel are demonstrating how virtual reality is revolutionizing the way we interact with products and brands. We spoke with Mike John Otto, Partner and Executive Creative Director at Artificial Rome, to find out more about how it all works and which companies and organizations stand to benefit most from immersive brand experiences.
“Generally speaking, products and topics that evoke emotions are the best candidates. Immersive experiences bring the unseen to life and aren’t intended to carry too much meaning. So it’s less about brand fit and more about the topic or product that’s being presented.”
Berlin-based studio Artificial Rome specializes in using immersive and narrative experiences to put brands in the spotlight. From luxurious skincare products to innovative electric vehicles, the aim is to make the invisible both visible and tangible in a way that allows consumers to become deeply immersed. To get a sense of how this can be achieved, let’s take a look at three examples.
#1 Renault: experience the future of driving
For the launch of the all-electric Renault 5 E-Tech, Artificial Rome created a virtual world in which users are taken on a drive through the streets of a European city and along open country roads. Interactive hotspots, a freeze mode enabling users to personalize the vehicle, and seamless integration into Renault’s website make the immersive brand experience both emotional and functional. Soil, the metaverse platform developed by Artificial Rome, delivers impressive visual accuracy and an experience that can be accessed on any device worldwide.
Meticulously recreated using Unreal Engine 5.3, the scenery combines realistic cities and rural backdrops with innovative interactivity. “The immersive experience gives you a highly realistic impression of all the key features and how it feels to drive the car,” explains Patrik de Jong, founder of Artificial Rome.
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#2 Clarins: beauty meets virtual reality
Developed in collaboration with CULT and Artificial Rome, the Clarins Virtual World elevates digital brand communication to a new level. The environment is dedicated to the brand’s legendary Double Serum and immerses the user in a luxurious, golden universe. From interactive shopping features to an AI-generated message for the user’s future self, the platform offers much more than a conventional online shopping experience.
The centerpiece of the virtual brand experience is a luminous waterfall of Double Serum that highlights the active ingredients used in the products by appealing to the senses. “The combination of immersive storytelling, gamification and interactivity is what makes this experience so special,” explains Kadine James, Experiences Director at Artificial Rome. The result is a bridge between the digital and physical brand universe that has a lasting impact.
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#3 Diesel: NFTs and gamification
Diesel has also worked with Artificial Rome to blur the boundaries between reality and the virtual world. Showcasing Diesel’s latest collection of watches, the VERT Experience combines NFT avatars with a gamified metaverse environment. As well as appealing to the Diesel community, the concept also fires the imagination and sets new benchmarks for immersive brand experiences in the retail sector.
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The power of immersive experiences in brand communication
With immersive brand experiences, consumers are no longer simply passive onlookers – interaction and engagement are encouraged. “The more active and interactive I am, the more intensively I engage with the product or topic,” says Mike John Otto. Whether through virtual test drives, personalized shopping features or the combination of gamification with real-life products, experiences like these create emotional bonds and increase customers’ willingness to buy.
Another advantage is the community effect, whereby shared experiences strengthen brand loyalty. Users post about their experiences, vastly increasing the reach of these campaigns. In addition, integrated purchase options or promotional codes facilitate the crossover to the real world and maximize ROI.
What companies need to know about immersive brand experiences
According to Mike John Otto, immersive experiences achieve the most success when they:
- Tap into emotional themes
- Combine interactivity and storytelling
- Seamlessly merge physical and digital worlds
- Offer easy accessibility via web browsers or mobile devices
- Integrate activation and conversion measures.
Immersive brand experiences: the future of digital brand communication
Renault, Clarins and Diesel are proving that immersive experiences are much more than just technical gimmicks – they are the future of digital brand communication. They bring products and brands to life in a highly sensory, interactive and emotional way. This gives marketers the opportunity to add a new dimension to the customer journey and create long-term connections with consumers.
Mike John Otto is a Partner and Executive Creative Director at Artificial Rome, a LIGANOVA Group company. As an experienced top-level creative, he strengthens collaboration within the LIGANOVA Group by taking a design-oriented, strategic approach to brand communication and manages Artificial Rome together with its co-founders. The multi-award-winning member of art direction organizations ADC and D&AD believes in strong narrative and brand experiences that turn people into true brand fans. Web 3.0 and immersive experiences in particular are increasingly playing a key role in this process. The possibilities of merging physical and virtual spaces for brands also offer unique added value for customers.
Read the full interview with Mike John Otto here:
Which brands benefit most from immersive experiences?
Generally speaking, products and topics that evoke emotions are the best candidates. Immersive experiences bring the unseen to life and aren’t intended to carry too much meaning. So it’s less about brand fit and more about the topic or product that’s being presented.
What makes immersive brand experiences more effective than traditional marketing techniques?
Immersive experiences allow you to dive in to a new world and a new story. As a visitor, I am literally at the center of the action, and it allows me not only to become immersed but also to interact with the product, the brand and the world. Another important factor is that I can experience this together with and at the same time as other people. An instant community effect is created. For example, we brought the iconic Renault 5 E-Tech to life in a unique virtual environment so that we could generate a state-of-the-art visualization of the car. The tool allows users to fully immerse themselves in the driving experience and familiarize themselves with the model’s versatility in different locations.
How does the combination of interactivity and brand communication influence how the target group feels?
The more active and interactive I am, the more I engage with the product or topic. Actively doing something has more of an impact than passively watching. I’m talking about a narrative experience. Last year, we used NFT avatars and a metaverse experience to showcase Diesel’s latest watch collection, which is called VERT. The VERT Experience invites the Diesel community to immerse themselves in a virtual world that breaks the boundaries of reality, stimulates the senses and fires the imagination.
How can immersive experiences create a lasting connection between the digital world and the physical reality of the brand?
Immersive experiences are at their most powerful when they are embedded in or complement the physical brand space. The real wow effect is created when the real and virtual worlds merge seamlessly. The Clarins Virtual World is a great example of this. It blurs the lines between physical and digital retail and invites users to immerse themselves in luxurious, golden surroundings dedicated to the brand’s legendary Double Serum. Interactive elements and shopping features allow users to experience the product and the brand’s scientific expertise up close. The VERT Experience also focused on digital brand communication in combination with a gamification concept applied to retail, creating a seamless link between online and offline experiences.
What role do shopping or conversion features play in these virtual environments to induce users to interact with the real product?
Every immersive experience must first be activated. Activation and conversion measures are therefore key to the success of immersive brand experiences. You have to steer people toward the experience. The option to make a purchase directly within the experience increases dwell time and the feeling of being inside a special world.
