By: Thomas Schertzer
Creating Immersive Worlds: VIBRANT’s Anatomy of a Show Stopping Experience
When Eric Brouillet started VIBRANT Marketing in 2006, his goal was simple: to create a marketing firm that delivers meaningful connections between brands and people. Over the years, the execution of this vision has evolved but the core essence still remains to this day. The progression of the VIBRANT brand has led us to the launch of our newest division, VIBRANT Studios — a space where creativity and innovation collide to finance, develop and execute immersive experiences like never before.
As of today we have two experiences in market, TINTIN, The Immersive Adventure, originally planned to conclude on January 12th but extended to January 26th due to consumer demand currently open at Arsenal Contemporary Art in Montreal and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, The Immersive Quest, currently open at Square One in Mississauga.
At VIBRANT, we’ve always believed that marketing is more than just reaching an audience; it’s about engaging authentically with them. It’s about crafting experiences that make people feel something, moments that inspire action and create lasting impressions. With VIBRANT Studios, we’re taking this philosophy to new height.
Once we solidified our direction as a company, the next step was to develop various processes to execute on this vision. We created roadmaps, frameworks, workbacks and many more key artefacts to ensure that our vision can be executed in reality.
Special thanks to Culturespaces Studio as well as Tintinimaginatio for allowing us the opportunity to adapt their highly successful experience to the North American market.
First, the Question: What Does It Mean to Build an Immersive Experience?
For us, immersive isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a mindset. It’s about understanding human behaviour, leveraging cutting-edge technology, and weaving powerful stories that draw people into a world where brands come alive.
Picture this, you walk into a space where the walls react to the height of your presence, where light, sound, and visuals work together to tell a story you feel part of. Or imagine a digital landscape that adapts as you explore, creating a sense of personal connection. These aren’t just ideas—they’re the realities we’re building at VIBRANT Studios.
Tintin Tidbit: Our experience is centered around projection mapping, however, we worked with incredible sound engineers to link sound & visuals together based on a participants location within the space. The sound accompanies each guest as they navigate the space, making the journey feel personal.
Second, the Process: Turning Ideas into Experiences
Every project we take on starts with a question: How can we create something unforgettable? It begins with collaboration, one of our key corporate pillars. Our team of designers, strategists, and technologists — works closely with an existing IP partner to uncover what makes their brand unique and what story they think they want to tell.
From there, it’s a journey of ideation, prototyping, and refining until the vision becomes a tangible, immersive reality. Once aligned on what makes this property unforgettable, we move into experience development.
Tintin Tidbit: We brought many key brand artefacts to Montreal, including a large scale rocket that has never been shipped outside of Belgium before. We also had other one of a kind, historically significant brand assets that participants could get up close to for the first time ever.
Third, the Steps: Key Elements we Build To Capture Attention
Well before we begin asset production, we ensure that we have fully executed our immersive experience framework, built on a five (5) pillar structure that ensures each execution lives up to the VIBRANT Studio standard of excellence. We dive deep into each pillar making sure it is strategically developed and thoroughly planned in order to deliver impact. Below is just a sample of the work we do in developing our experiences.
#1 – Intellectual Property Selection & Thematic Narrative
• Is this a global, well-recognized and deeply loved brand?
• Are we partnering with them at a key time in their brands life? I.e. do they have an anniversary coming up, or a key milestone that we are complimenting?
• Can the brand narrative apply itself well to an immersive consumer experience?
• Is the brand aligned to develop this experience in partnership with VIBRANT Studios?
Tintin Tidbit: The Tintin brand reached out to VIBRANT Studios as it saw other work we were doing and saw we had a French side of the business, which resonated with them as the “Tintin, The Immersive Adventure” has had huge commercial success in Paris, Brussels, Bordeaux and other locations across French speaking Europe. Montreal is the only city this property will visit in North America.
#2 – Guest Welcome / Greeting Experience
• First impressions are everything, what is our plan to make ours unique?
• How are we bringing the IP to life in a bold, but authentic way?
• For those that might not the know the brand well, what education pieces are present to bring a less informed consumer along right from the beginning?
• For a super-fan, what collectible or unique never before seen item is present? How are we making sure this consumer is getting something new right away?
Tintin Tidbit: The entry room in the experience is all centered around brand education. From a timeline of the brand and key milestones, to its first comics and large scale art installations, this area was designed to educate those unfamiliar and inspire those familiar with Tintin.
#3 – Consumer Experience Set-Up in Themed Room(s)
• Now that we have gotten attendees engaged in the brand world, what is the overall storyline? Each participant deserves to have a personalized experience, how and when are we delivering this? We want to offer textured experiences so what elements are we bringing that offer this?
• How many consumer engagement zones are we executing, what is the length and level of interaction within each area? What are the tropes and the participant pay-offs?
• From an empathy map perspective, what are we wanting our consumer to feel and think throughout their experience?
Tintin Tidbit: We leveraged the use of impressive visuals to make participants feel inspired and displayed the story of Tintin in a brand new way. We showcased Hergés work, the artist behind the comic in a progressive way by highlighting Tintin’s friends, his enimies and his adventures. This supported the brand strategy and overall direction.
#4 – Merchandise & Curated Collections
• Offering unique merchandise that cannot be purchased anywhere else will always drive consumer excitement. This allows for consumers to take these pieces home with them and relive their experience. Is our offering deep enough? Are we offering items at various price points and to various consumer segments?
• Are there other items that are not physical that could be relevant? An second, complimentary experience or activity that continues a highly engaged consumers journey?
Tintin Tidbit: After just 5 short weeks in market, our Tintin Boutique has been the belle of the ball as has already achieved its entire commercial objective. Our participants have browsed the boutiques offering and consistently leave with multiple items. This is a great surprise to us but we were confident as this is the largest Tintin boutique in North America!
#5 – Marketing & Communications Plan
• It goes without saying that a fulsome integrated marketing plan is required in order to deliver awareness, interest and ultimately conversion into ticket sales for your experience.
• The campaign should be in market at least 3 months (6 months preferred) prior to doors opening and should consist of various marketing levers to attract your primary and secondary target audiences.
Tintin Tidbit: Turning to our expertise internally, VIBRANT Marketing Services was enlisted to develop, plan and execute a full above the line (AtL) and below the line (BtL) marketing campaign that would drive awareness, interest and ticket purchase.
Finally, Sweat the Details: Deliver on Your Promise
With all this being said, proper planning is less than half the battle and the executional success lies in implementing your strategy, consistently and effectively for multiple months. Run of show development, staffing, training and execution procedures lie at the heart of implementation. Sweat the small stuff to ensure that your experience is delivering on what you said it would. If it does, consumers will recognize and appreciate this and grant you referrals, online testimonials and repeat visits.
Stay tuned for more of VIBRANT Studio’s evolution and our next property to come in 2025!