By: Margaret Chandra Kerrison
Future Trends in Immersive Storytelling
As a storyteller and experience designer, I embrace the challenge of creating memorable experiences. I pride myself on breaking the mold and reimagining everything we know about storytelling. I see the future of immersive experiences as an opportunity to be courageous, innovative, and transformative.
To create experiences that are unforgettable, meaningful, and engaging as a brand, you have to pay attention. Pay attention to market trends and observe what successful brands are doing to engage with their consumers. Learn from your customers, be inspired by other brands’ work, adapt their strategies, draw inspiration from other industries, embrace new technologies, and then make it your own.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of brand marketing, creative product development plays a pivotal role in transforming brand storytelling into immersive experiences. Creative studios are at the forefront of this transformation, leveraging cutting-edge technology and innovative design to create physical spaces that captivate and engage consumers. By crafting experiential brand storytelling, these studios help brands forge deeper connections with their audiences, making every interaction memorable and meaningful.
Experiences Take Center Stage in Brand Storytelling
We are seeing more than ever that brands aren’t only interested in selling their goods to customers; they’re interested in offering experiences to delight their customers in their product ecosystem, engaging all of their senses to create unique memories. And many of these successful brand experiences begin with story.
With a growing focus on narrative-driven immersive experiences, brands are blending storytelling techniques with interactive technologies to create compelling and emotionally engaging narratives. It starts with truly understanding the values of your brand and what you want to convey to the world. What do you represent? And who do you want to engage with? Then, how can you create experiences that embrace your brand in a world or ecosystem that your customers want to partake in? What is their wish fulfillment in the context of your brand ecosystem? Successful brands create a consumer journey, identifying key touchpoints where experiential storytelling can have the greatest impact.
Each one of these brand moments, when driven by story, is an emotional deposit into the brand. Why is this important? Because customers are inundated with choices. The brands that provide something more than the ordinary win. The brands that offer experiences for customers to engage in the story, IP world, and product ecosystem have the opportunity to create memories associated with the brand that connect them to the brand and its values.
One of my favorite brand storytelling comes from the Dove “Real Beauty” Sketches Live campaign. Dove’s very touching and inspiring “Real Beauty” campaign was extended into live events where women were invited to participate in “Real Beauty Sketches.” At these events, a forensic artist drew women based on their own descriptions and then based on descriptions from strangers. The revealing and emotional outcomes were shared on social media, reinforcing Dove’s message of self-acceptance and natural beauty.
Nike’s “House of Innovation” located in New York, Shanghai, and Paris are flagship stores that provide a unique customer journey with interactive and immersive retail experiences. I visited the store in 5th Ave, New York City, a multi-level experience complex where consumers can customize products, test gear in simulated environments, and explore the brand’s history and innovations in engaging, hands-on interactive moments. Their brand messaging is very clear, “At Nike, our mission is simple: to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.” From that message, the brand created an experience that embraces the inner athlete in everyone.
Netflix is creating the Netflix House, in-person venues where consumers can engage with their brand and content in a multi-use destination that promises to be a compelling entertainment, dining, and shopping complex. They’ve announced two locations in King of Prussia, PA, and Dallas, TX to open in 2025. The content juggernaut understands the value of storytelling, taking the stories from their popular streaming series and manifesting them into a place where consumers can celebrate and step into the stories they love and be immersed in different worlds.
As a brand, ask yourself how you can create an experience that embraces your brand’s values and gives the opportunity for your consumers to engage in a playground of your brand. Consider how your consumers can engage and celebrate your brand in a way that’s unique, meaningful, and worthy of social media impressions.
Extended Reality and Advanced Technology
Extended reality (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality) continues to evolve with advancements in hardware and software technology, providing consumers with increasing opportunities to experience brands in various realities. Brands are experimenting with low barriers to entry, allowing consumers to engage in ways that are natural, easy, and quickly gratifying.
Sephora experimented with their Beauty TIP (Teach, Inspire, Play) Workshop in New York City and San Francisco, featuring interactive makeup stations, virtual artist tools, and classes on beauty techniques. The stores used augmented reality to help customers visualize products and looks. Today, IKEA Kreativ offers an AR app that allows customers to visualize how furniture will look in their homes by enabling them to remove existing furniture, plan, and design their spaces in mixed reality. Customers can add, move, and change items without worrying about fit because the app scales everything accurately for them.
I’m also curious to see more advances in spatial computing technologies where companies could enable more realistic and interactive immersive experiences for their customers. This includes technologies like spatial mapping, spatial audio, and gesture recognition, enhancing user immersion and engagement. AI and machine learning are also being integrated into immersive experiences to personalize content, enhance interactivity, and create dynamic, responsive environments based on user behavior and preferences.
When companies successfully marry technology with a seamless guest experience, they become the trailblazers. They understand that the technology should be a tool or vehicle to the experience, and not the product. It should always be in service to the brand’s story and guest experience. It supports the magic; it shouldn’t be the magic.
Community-building in Experiential Design
Successful brands are also building communities of consumers who can share, engage, and celebrate their shared affinity. These brands aim to integrate themselves into their customers’ lifestyles by encouraging consumers to engage with the brand, bring along their loved ones and friends, and connect with other like-minded individuals.
Many brands now have dedicated Community Teams to ensure their customer base feels included, engaged, and empowered. These teams share stories that immerse all of their customers’ senses, creating meaningful moments that transform into powerful memories. With every positive association with the brand, customers are motivated to return to the brand experience to feel fulfilled and build more memories. This process leads to customers developing a history with the brand that touches every aspect of their lives.
For example, Peloton’s live and on-demand classes include social features like leaderboards, hashtags, and virtual high-fives. Peloton also hosts community events and meet-ups, which provides a strong sense of community and keeps members motivated and engaged.
One of my favorite brands, Patagonia, consistently practices what they preach. Patagonia Action Works connects customers with grassroots environmental organizations and helps users find events, volunteer opportunities, and petitions related to environmental causes. Their commitment to activism resonates deeply with its community and the brand is always finding new ways to improve their sustainable practices.
Community-building provides a valuable opportunity for brands to engage in conversations with their community, which is one of the best ways to integrate feedback and make necessary changes. Glossier is well-known for its community-led digital strategy, leveraging its most loyal customers to discuss products, share beauty tips, and provide feedback.
Brands that actively listen to and engage with their tight-knit communities demonstrate a willingness to evolve in response to consumers’ ever-changing desires. This adaptability helps brands become frontrunners in the competitive market. By fostering a sense of community, brands can create a continuous feedback loop, ensuring they stay relevant and responsive to their customers’ needs.
With great advances in technology, I hope to see experiences promoting stronger, more meaningful social and collaborative bonds between visitors. Could these experiences allow users to interact with others in virtual environments, attend virtual events, and participate in shared experiences on and offline?
The lines of real and imagined are becoming blurred to create one world in which users and visitors can engage with the story, people, and world however, whenever, and wherever they want. Sooner rather than later, the lines between physical and digital worlds are blurring with the rise of cross-reality experiences, where elements from the real world are integrated into virtual environments and vice versa, creating seamless and interconnected experiences.
An Impermanent World
What a world we live in today! We can capture every thought and moment of our lives anywhere in the world and share it with others in a matter of seconds. Everything is immediate and impermanent. We are all content creators, critics, and consumers, all at once. The internet is the great democratizer.
How will your brand embrace this ability to empower your consumers? With more choices than ever before, what do you stand for? What will be your brand legacy? How will you change and evolve with shifting consumer demands? Will you embrace your consumers’ creativity, invite conversation, and build a community?
Those who embrace change in the world are the ones who are likely to shape it. The world is constantly evolving, and nothing remains the same for long. Technological advancements, shifting consumer preferences, evolving market conditions, and ever-changing cultural trends challenge us to either ‘go with the flow’ or swim upstream. A brand that acknowledges this impermanence shows that it is adaptable, responsive to feedback, and capable of evolving with its community’s needs and the world’s changes. This adaptability is crucial for maintaining relevance and fostering strong, ongoing relationships with customers.
Go Forth
Know your audience. Pay attention to the market. What are the consumer trends? Marketing firms like VIBRANT, with their newly launched VIBRANT Studios, are stepping into the playing field to create more engaging experiences for consumers based on these emerging trends:
• Brands are creating immersive, memorable experiences to engage consumers and build deeper connections.
- • Customized products and personalized marketing are becoming more popular as consumers seek unique, tailored experiences.
- • The rise of e-commerce and digital platforms has transformed how consumers shop and interact with brands. In response, brands are leveraging cutting-edge technologies to enhance products and customer experiences.
- • There is a growing focus on health, wellness, and self-care, influencing product offerings and marketing strategies.
- • Consumers are increasingly supporting brands that align with their values and contribute to social causes. They are also increasingly demanding environmentally friendly and ethically produced products.
- • Leveraging influencers and social media platforms to reach and engage with target audiences.
- • Combining online and offline channels to provide a seamless, holistic customer experience.
Pay attention to what other brands are doing. Learn from them, improve upon them, and make it your own. Be prepared to consistently be curious, learn, and change with the times. Change the world for the better, one experience, one story at a time.
About the writer
Margaret Kerrison is an advisory board member of VIBRANT Studios, a newly-launched interactive experiential studio dedicated to connecting audiences to stories through the infinite power of immersive experiences. With over 16 years of experience, Margaret has become a renowned story lead, creative consultant, and writer in themed entertainment and immersive experiences.
Her impressive portfolio includes notable projects such as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, National Geographic Base Camp, and the NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Margaret’s tenure as a Disney Imagineer solidified her expertise in crafting unforgettable narratives.
In addition to her creative work, Margaret is also an accomplished author. Her books, “Immersive Storytelling for Real and Imagined Worlds” and “Reimagined Worlds: Narrative Placemaking for People, Play, and Purpose,” draw from her extensive experience to guide the next generation of storytellers.
Margaret has collaborated with some of the world’s most beloved brands, shaping immersive experiences that captivate audiences worldwide. Her work continues to push the boundaries of narrative and design, creating magical, transformative moments for all who engage with her creations.
She is excited to embark on this journey with VIBRANT Studios.