NEWS & UPDATES

August 8, 2008 In By Advent

Definition of Immersive Marketing

“If you build it they will come.” — Field of Dreams

Immer­sive mar­ket­ing is the heir appar­ent to the expe­ri­en­tial mar­ket­ing and cus­tomer expo­sure man­age­ment philoso­phies.  The obvi­ous impli­ca­tion of ‘immer­sive mar­ket­ing′ is that it com­pletely envelops con­sumers in the brand.  But what does that mean prac­ti­cally?  Shar Van Boskirk of For­rester Mar­ket­ing Research defines immer­sive mar­ket­ing as “a cohe­sive and all-encompassing expe­ri­ence across any chan­nel where the cus­tomer is.” This def­i­n­i­tion is a good jump­ing off point for our dis­cus­sion and offers some buoyancy.

In order for this to be a use­ful def­i­n­i­tion (like a use­ful brand) it must dif­fer­en­ti­ate itself from close cousins like expe­ri­en­tial mar­ket­ing.  Boskirk is right to point out the “cohe­sive and all-encompassing nature” of immer­sive mar­ket­ing.  There is more of a focus on broad­en­ing the expe­ri­ence beyond the expe­ri­ence to include pre-sale, during-the-sale, and even heavy post-sale engage­ment.  A suc­cess­ful immer­sive engage­ment goes beyond pro­vid­ing a sin­gle, mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence in such a way that the brand becomes a part of the consumer′s lifestyle.  If you can excuse the neg­a­tive con­no­ta­tion, we could say that it achieves a cultish following.

A more sub­tle dis­tinc­tion is the degree to which the audi­ence is engaged.  Engage­ment is the crux of expe­ri­en­tial mar­ket­ing.  Immer­sive mar­ket­ing trends show a focus on chal­leng­ing the audi­ence and spurring an even more intense fluid, dynamic, two-way flow.  A call to action is a vital ingre­di­ent to any immer­sive mar­ket­ing campaign.

Immer­sive mar­ket­ing does not fol­low an inside-out approach to sell­ing.  Tra­di­tional forms of mar­ket­ing tend to shout at cus­tomers and achieve inter­rup­tion.  Think about it.  Say you are watch­ing Saved by the Bell.  Zack is about to ask Kelly to the dance and at the tow­er­ing zenith of sus­pense… Will she say yes?  Will she go with Slater instead?  Just when you can take any more of the sweaty palmed, knee quak­ing crescendo of ado­les­cent ten­sion and doubt, what hap­pens?  Laun­dry deter­gent.  A laun­dry deter­gent add inter­rupts your tele­vi­sion show with a vain hubris­tic play for your atten­tion.  Immer­sive mar­ket­ing takes more of a concierge type role.

We all know about “pas­sive aggres­sive” but what about “aggres­sively pas­sive.” Immer­sive mar­ket­ing cam­paigns are dis­tinctly pas­sive.  Friendly, invit­ing envi­ron­ments invite a passerby to step into a retail store instead of scream­ing at him to do so.  Rather than fol­low­ing loud instruc­tions the con­sumer is sub­tly encour­aged to take a proac­tive first step and thus open flood­gates the kind two-way fluid inter­ac­tion that brand man­agers dream about.  A suc­cess­ful pas­sive approach does not just hap­pen.  Mar­keters must be extremely aggres­sive in their pas­sive approach.  Dili­gent work with design­ers, archi­tects, and brand man­agers is what achieves and sub­tly seduc­tive brand space.  Intense screen­ing and edu­ca­tion will pro­vide you with a smil­ing, help­ful, and approach­able front line staff.

With a focus on aggres­sively dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing your brand to be more pas­sive and invit­ing you can achieve great results and higher ROI.  Immer­sive mar­ket­ing seeks to engage audi­ences through fluid inter­ac­tion and engage­ment that exceeds the expe­ri­ence itself.   If you do these things, “Peo­ple will come, Ray.  Peo­ple will most def­i­nitely come” (Field of Dreams).

Related Arti­cles:

The Future: Immer­sive Mar­ket­ing by Shar Van Boskirk

Can “Immer­sion Mar­ket­ing” Save Mar­ket­ing From Itself? by Gra­ham Hill

Immer­sive Mar­ket­ing: Chal­lenge Your Audi­ence by Bill Taylor

Advent leads from the fore­front of the cut­ting edge mod­ern mar­ket­ing indus­try by fuel­ing brands with the explo­sive power of immer­sion.  Advent cre­ates an emo­tional bond with audi­ences by lever­ag­ing the unri­valed effec­tive­ness of expe­ri­en­tial mar­ket­ing through tar­geted events, engag­ing exhibits, and branded spaces.  High impact and high touch strate­gies mark Advent′s cre­ative advan­tage and have helped rapidly expand­ing brands com­mu­ni­cate mes­sages that gain imme­di­ate and last­ing res­o­nance with con­sumers.  For more, please visit www.adventresults.com.

Authored By Advent

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