Three Tech Trends Experiential Marketers Will be Watching in 2024.
(5-minute read)
Artificial intelligence (AI), Web 3.0, and mixed reality technologies are poised to revolutionize the experiential marketing space in the coming year. See some of the ways they are transforming Experiential Marketing (XM) at a consumer level and operational one as well.
Artificial Intelligence - it's hard to cover AI in a few sentences or even paragraphs as the shift will touch every aspect of the XM landscape. Here are a few ways it will affect XM:
1. Proactive Business Intelligence | AI will be an increasingly helpful tool to capture, process, and report real-time online and onsite metrics. Marketers will be able to offer real-time predictive analytics for live experiences, enabling hyper-personalized content and recommendations. Some real world examples are using computer vision to gather foot traffic data, heat maps illustrating where consumers are spending time in certain areas of your activations, and providing sentiment analysis.
3. AI-Enhanced Content Creation | Activations can be used to create unique shareable branded content (music/audio, images, video) via curated generative AI offering fun highly curated moments for consumers and expanding reach for brands.
4. Creative Collaborator | It will increasingly be used by event teams at an operational level to collaborate on blue-sky creative (generative AI) for visuals, copy/content, music, even operations.
5. AI Ambassadors and Production Assistants | Chatbots and virtual assistants (LLMs) can engage with customers in real time, providing instant information and assistance, enhancing the overall experience for consumers and XM producers. AI tools and services will become an intergral part of the XM team more than ever, provide notes and action items after meetings, determine logistics, and scheduling, offering suggestions and reminders along the way.
Web 3.0, often referred to as the Semantic Web, will enable a more interconnected online/onsite engagement. Simply put, Web 3.0 is the next-gen decentralized internet, providing a more personalized and interactive experience while giving users more control over their personal data and privacy. This will allow marketers to create immersive, seamless experiences across various digital platforms and onsite activations that start way before the XM activation happens (IRL). 1. Extended Engagement & Hyper-personalization | One simple example, imagine a consumer can create a personalized avatar in a Web 3.0 brand space prior to a physical activation then meets them when they arrive at the XM activation when they arrive. 2. Interconnected World | Web 3.0's focus on linked data and semantic understanding that will enhance the discoverability of experiential content and improve the user journey before, during, and after the onsite moment. Most importantly it will give the consumer the power to determine what data is shared and what is not providing new levels of control, interactivity, control, and personalization. 3. Branded Co-creation | Some brands are already tapping the potential of simple loose co-creation engagements, Adobe Create, Faraday Future, and Alibaba come to mind. For brands already taking the plunge into Web 3.0 this may be making way for the concept of brand driven Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) which are governed by rules encoded on a blockchain under the Maker protocol. These brands may involve their communities in decision-making through these DAOs that are powered by NFTs or simply tokens, letting users vote on product development and features, campaigns, or charitable contributions providing new levels of brand engagement and loyalty. For brands that are not yet invested in Web 3.0 there are still opportunities to 'tokenize' certain actions or achievements (ex. bad example completing a scavenger hunt) to empower consumers to level-up in a given activation, to enable them to vote, to participate at a deeper level or engage. This allows the functionality of co-creation outside the blockchain system while providing a similar level of engagement.
Mixed reality (MR), including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), offers immersive experiences that bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. Marketers can use AR to overlay digital information on the physical environment, making product demonstrations and interactive experiences more engaging. VR can transport users to virtual worlds, creating unique brand experiences. These technologies can be particularly valuable for industries like retail, gaming, and entertainment, offering customers interactive and memorable encounters. A hint of advice to any marketers in the crowd, think of phone MR before thinking of onsite devices (Oculus Rift, Hololens 2.0, etc.) if you're concerned about throughput, and think through the BI architecture for any MR to insure you're capturing the needed reporting to support your KPIs. From my experience, MR is particularly good at providing engagements or demos that would not otherwise be possible in a given activation (ex. take the consumer to the pastry factory to provide a dynamic story of the history of bread with a 360º VR movie, or take the latest auto and explode it apart in dramatic fashion).
Overall, the integration of AI, Web 3.0, and mixed reality will empower experiential marketing campaigns to work more efficiently and deliver creative, highly personalized, interactive, immersive, and memorable experiences that extend far beyond the physical event, fostering deeper connections between brands and their audiences in an increasingly digital world. RELATED ARTICLES: Vogue Business | DAO's want to reshape fashion Pleasr DAO | Artist Powered Organization Friends With Benefits | DAO
Web 3.0, often referred to as the Semantic Web, will enable a more interconnected online/onsite engagement. Simply put, Web 3.0 is the next-gen decentralized internet, providing a more personalized and interactive experience while giving users more control over their personal data and privacy. This will allow marketers to create immersive, seamless experiences across various digital platforms and onsite activations that start way before the XM activation happens (IRL). 1. Extended Engagement & Hyper-personalization | One simple example, imagine a consumer can create a personalized avatar in a Web 3.0 brand space prior to a physical activation then meets them when they arrive at the XM activation when they arrive. 2. Interconnected World | Web 3.0's focus on linked data and semantic understanding that will enhance the discoverability of experiential content and improve the user journey before, during, and after the onsite moment. Most importantly it will give the consumer the power to determine what data is shared and what is not providing new levels of control, interactivity, control, and personalization. 3. Branded Co-creation | Some brands are already tapping the potential of simple loose co-creation engagements, Adobe Create, Faraday Future, and Alibaba come to mind. For brands already taking the plunge into Web 3.0 this may be making way for the concept of brand driven Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) which are governed by rules encoded on a blockchain under the Maker protocol. These brands may involve their communities in decision-making through these DAOs that are powered by NFTs or simply tokens, letting users vote on product development and features, campaigns, or charitable contributions providing new levels of brand engagement and loyalty. For brands that are not yet invested in Web 3.0 there are still opportunities to 'tokenize' certain actions or achievements (ex. bad example completing a scavenger hunt) to empower consumers to level-up in a given activation, to enable them to vote, to participate at a deeper level or engage. This allows the functionality of co-creation outside the blockchain system while providing a similar level of engagement.
Mixed reality (MR), including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), offers immersive experiences that bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. Marketers can use AR to overlay digital information on the physical environment, making product demonstrations and interactive experiences more engaging. VR can transport users to virtual worlds, creating unique brand experiences. These technologies can be particularly valuable for industries like retail, gaming, and entertainment, offering customers interactive and memorable encounters. A hint of advice to any marketers in the crowd, think of phone MR before thinking of onsite devices (Oculus Rift, Hololens 2.0, etc.) if you're concerned about throughput, and think through the BI architecture for any MR to insure you're capturing the needed reporting to support your KPIs. From my experience, MR is particularly good at providing engagements or demos that would not otherwise be possible in a given activation (ex. take the consumer to the pastry factory to provide a dynamic story of the history of bread with a 360º VR movie, or take the latest auto and explode it apart in dramatic fashion).
Overall, the integration of AI, Web 3.0, and mixed reality will empower experiential marketing campaigns to work more efficiently and deliver creative, highly personalized, interactive, immersive, and memorable experiences that extend far beyond the physical event, fostering deeper connections between brands and their audiences in an increasingly digital world. RELATED ARTICLES: Vogue Business | DAO's want to reshape fashion Pleasr DAO | Artist Powered Organization Friends With Benefits | DAO
About the Author
David is a U.S.-based creative marketing executive that defines and delivers DM & XM experiences that capture the moment, breathes life into the brand, connects people, and bridges technology, data, and behavioral economics to go well beyond "If you build it, they will come." He has created live brand experiences for Microsoft, Cisco, Rodan + Fields, and the NHL.