Immersive experiences were once just for gamers, but not anymore! In the last few years, more and more companies have come to realize how transporting someone to a whole new environment benefits their business. It’s extremely engaging, if not anything. And we all know that meaningful engagement goes a long way.
Immersive technologies are now being used in many fields, such as marketing, education, and healthcare. You, too, can create an immersive experience that your audience will remember for years!
This article aims to help you understand immersive experiences and the technologies that power them. We’ll start with definitions, then mostly discuss the technologies behind the scenes and 10 real-world examples.
We also have a section dedicated to marketing as a field that has fully realized the potential of these experiences and also one for our expectations of what is yet to come.
Let’s get started!
What Are Immersive Experiences?
An immersive experience is a digital interaction that deeply engages the senses and makes you feel you are in a different place.
Compare that to interactive experiences that revolve around lively interactions, sometimes without transporting you elsewhere, and to traditional experiences where you’re just a passive spectator.
Interactive experiences often involve user engagement without necessarily aiming for sensory immersion. However, immersive experiences combine sensory and interactive elements to create a deeply engaging environment.
Immersive experiences can engage all five senses, with a particular focus on sight, sound, and touch. So, they can fully absorb you!
As we mentioned, gamers aren’t new to this concept at all. They’re used to exploring new worlds, walking the thin line between reality and digital content. The rest of us are still adopting this phenomenon into our industries to simulate real-world scenarios, captivate audiences, or teach people something that will stick.
Read more about Brand Experience.
3 Key Elements of Immersive Experiences
Immersive experiences rely on three characteristics, each of which has a number of technologies behind it. Let’s take a look at the characteristics first!
Sensory Engagement
As we mentioned, sensory engagement is the first thing you notice about any immersive experience. It’s immersive because you can feel it with your own senses.
For instance, an immersive experience can feature sophisticated graphics, 3D environments, spatial audio that sets the tone or provides a direction, and haptic feedback equipment that provides physical sensations of touch. Can you imagine the depth of such an experience?
Interactivity
Keep that image of a deep experience in mind, but also imagine that you can’t do anything in there. Deflating, isn’t it? That wouldn’t be so different from 5D or 7D movie theaters!
But immersive experiences are more than that, so interactivity also lies at their heart. When you’re in one of these fabulous environments, you are able to interact with it and experience the outcome of those interactions.
If this virtual world belongs to a video game, you’d feel a sense of agency, like you should go out and do something! Otherwise, you will still have an engaging, personalized, and memorable adventure.
Realism & Presence
An abstract world, even if you can interact with it and it would randomly engage your senses, is still not nearly close to our everyday existence. (Interactive abstract art installations may be an exception, but then again, real life isn’t full of what we typically call “art”.)
So, a convincing immersive experience will need to be realistic. It should be believable, featuring elements like detailed graphics, lifelike animations, and accurate physics.
Plus, every user should be there themselves. Presence creates a physical and emotional bond with the environment, which is ultimately what you’re looking for in an immersive experience anyway.
Technologies Behind Immersive Experiences
Now that we know the three basic elements, let’s break down the technologies that power them.
Note that the previous generation of immersive experiences featured large rooms, many well-placed lights, intricate details, etc., to make them as immersive as possible. Still, they’re not as immersive as the experiences we’re discussing in this article.
360-Degree Video & Audio
One of the first things you’ll need in an immersive experience is a complete view of your digital environment. That’s where 360° video and audio come into play.
Imagine a sphere around you that shows your digital environment. You can also go around in this sphere and explore any horizon. You start to walk in a direction. As soon as your foot lands on the ground, you hear the soft earth make a faint sound. Maybe a bird flies overhead, singing as it goes. Maybe a wind blows in your ears.
You get the picture! 360° video and audio are being increasingly used for virtual tours, documentaries, and more immersive experiences.
Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality (VR) is one of the leading technologies used to create immersive environments. Today’s most realistic VR experiences come to life using VR headsets like Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, etc. These headsets have high-resolution displays and track your motion, so once you’re in the virtual world, you can explore everywhere.
VR experiences also usually feature controllers or special VR showrooms because your physical environment might not be as vast as the virtual one you’re in.
Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality (AR) is another popular interactive technology in immersive experiences. This is the one that overlays digital content onto the real world. (Think back to the Pokémon GO craze!)
Unlike VR, AR does not create an entirely new environment but alters the user’s perception of their environment. You can find some examples of them in our review of interactive campaigns.
AR is now mainstream and can be easily accessed through digital devices. While this technology isn’t fully immersive, it can be combined with VR to create a Mixed Reality. Read on!
Discover how augmented reality is transforming industries! Explore real-world examples and get inspired to integrate AR into your strategy. Read the full article here: Examples of AR Brand Experiences
Mixed Reality (MR)
Mixed Reality (MR) is one of those places where you truly feel the lines between the real and virtual worlds fade. As we mentioned, this technology blends elements of VR and AR, allowing users to interact with virtual and physical objects. It may be a glimpse of what is to come in everyday life!
Mixed Reality (MR) blends VR and AR elements, enabling interactions with virtual and physical objects. While initially associated with devices like Microsoft’s HoloLens and Magic Leap, MR has expanded into fields like healthcare, architecture, and immersive training simulations.
Haptic Feedback
Haptic feedback technology adds the element of touch to an immersive experience. The term itself isn’t limited to these experiences; you get haptic feedback when you type on a physical keyboard. That’s how you build muscle memory after a lot of typing!
In this context, haptic feedback is added to your virtual environment using special gloves and vests. These items are rigged to change shape or vibrate when you “touch” something digital, much like your body!
Motion Tracking & Capture
While we mentioned motion tracking as a feature in VR headsets, it’s important for you to know that this is a widely used technology in its own right.
Motion tracking is one of the best ways for a computer to know your exact location and gestures at any moment in a virtual environment. This is thanks to many motion cameras and sensors, usually with an AI behind them.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is everywhere nowadays, so this might be a given. Immersive experiences typically feature colossal amounts of data to be processed in real time. These could be heavy outputs of a game engine, a user’s rapid motion, a user talking to a character, etc.
It’s not humanly possible to go through all that data and take appropriate action at any given moment, but a well-trained AI could do it all at once without a hitch. That’s why many immersive experiences rely heavily on AI at one point or another.
Immersive Experiences in Marketing
As we briefly mentioned, immersive experiences are already transforming marketing as we know it. The reason is simple: brands have always been looking to enhance their relationship with customers. Immersive experiences, each unique as the next, offer brands a way to do just that. Our article on interactive branding delves into this reason further.
So, businesses everywhere are seizing the opportunity to stand out, foster an emotional connection with audience members, tell their stories in a compelling manner, personalize for each audience member, and ultimately create memorable moments for their customers.
Find examples in this article’s last section or in related posts in our blog:
[Use this space for internal links to other posts you deem related. Use titles or descriptive anchors in separate lines.]
Examples of Immersive Experiences
Now that the basics are covered, let’s see ten immersive experiences in action!
“The Infinite” ISS Experience
We have all dreamt of being up in space at some point. “The Infinite” brings that dream a little closer to reality.
This is a VR installation of the International Space Station (ISS) that’s been made using actual footage. It’s exactly the size of the ISS, with everything replicated down to the smallest pieces of equipment. You can float around, interact with various things, and learn about life in the station.
The best part? The view outside. The child in you will be blown away seeing Earth from that distance! See it for yourself:
Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience
Imagine stepping inside a Van Gogh painting, surrounded by intricate brushstrokes and vibrant colors. That’s exactly what ” Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” offers.
This is a 360° digital art installation that uses VR and various projection techniques to bring the Dutch master’s paintings right in front of you. You can take a walk through the exhibition and enjoy Van Gogh’s most famous works animated and projected on the walls, floors, and ceilings.
Everything will seem as mesmerizing as the painting seemed in your mind’s eye the first time you saw it. The sunflowers sway, the stars twinkle, and landscapes transform with changing light.
This is a great example of how technology and classical art can merge into one stellar experience for a modern audience. See it below:
“Otherworld” Immersive Art Experience
There’s nowhere you can’t be with immersive experiences. Otherworld, for example, lets you step into a fantasy world.
This is a gigantic, interactive, immersive installation in Ohio where visitors walk into room after room of dream-like, surreal physical environments that wouldn’t be nearly as immersive without technology.
Each person goes through the rooms at their own pace. Each room has a unique theme and many interactive elements. One is a neon forest where touching each tree brings its own sound and light into the room. Another is a room with infinite mirrors, creating an optical illusion that extends for miles!
The complex actually emphasizes open-ended storytelling; it’s not just a series of interactive exhibitions. Your sense of wonder grows from room to room, encouraging you to explore, discover hidden passages, and craft your own story. It’s quite an unforgettable experience!
Spyscape Interactive Spy Museum
Have you ever wanted to be a secret agent? You should probably visit Spyscape in New York to test your aptitude for it!
This one is an interactive, immersive experience that relies on cutting-edge technology and gamification. Once you’re inside, you’re given a wristband to track your progress through a series of challenges that test real spy skills, from code-breaking to dodging lasers.
What makes it even more interesting is that the experience uses AI to analyze your skills and performance, giving you a unique spy role like Intelligence Analyst or Spymaster in each replay.
The name “museum” is because the installation also features authentic spy artifacts and in-depth exhibitions of spy operations or famous intelligence agents. It has everything all in one, such as education, fun, and competition!
Framerate: Pulse of the Earth
This one is right at the intersection of art, technology, and data visualization.
It’s an immersive installation in London where you can witness real changes taking place on our planet, but at much higher speeds. When you go in, you’re surrounded by massive screens that show colorful visualizations from various sources, from a farm to downtown London. Given the ethereal nature of these scenes, you might not even understand what you’re watching for a while.
The experience has been brought to life using consecutive laser scans, AI, and many other technologies. It’s a truly remarkable use of big data! Learn more about it below:
Explore VR by National Geographic
National Geographic’s “Explore” takes you to some of the world’s most remote, awe-inspiring locations. You put on an Oculus Quest headset and you can find yourself in Antarctica or the peak of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park!
Since everything happens in a virtual environment, the experience’s use of 3D modeling and advanced data-gathering techniques like photogrammetry is of the utmost importance. They’ve done a wonderful job creating all those realistic surroundings.
This example shows how immersive experiences let you go on an adventure and learn something at the same time. (Doesn’t that remind you of National Geographic as a brand?) Maybe you can’t make it to Antarctica, but you can get an insight into what life is like over there.
The Boursin Sensorium
Here’s an old-but-gold example of immersive experiences in marketing.
This sensorium was a VR experience designed to market Boursin cheese. You sat in a motion-synchronized chair, put on a VR headset, and then went on a journey… in a stocked refrigerator!
What sets this experience apart to this day is the custom-built scent dispensers the people at Boursin had in place, so you could also smell everything as you saw it.
So, this multi-sensory experience has sight, sound, touch, and smell. The only missing thing, as you see all these delicious things, is the taste, and people outside the sensorium had that covered with samples of Boursin cheese. Super clever, isn’t it?
The Weather Channel’s Mixed Reality Experiences
The Weather Channel is at the forefront of weather reporting innovation, mostly thanks to its immersive mixed reality (MR) experiences.
While you can’t walk into these, the weather people do. Their in-depth reports are the closest many of us can get to actual MR experiences from the comfort of our homes. These reports utilize virtual elements (mostly sight and sound) in the studio environment you see on the TV, closely following a catastrophic event.
The act of their people is what actually happens in real-life MR installations you can try! See their entire studio get destroyed in a tornado:
Birdly: Bird Flight Simulator
It would be wrong not to mention at least one video game in this list. They inspired a lot of today’s immersive experiences! This one, however, isn’t a regular video game.
Birdly is a cutting-edge VR package that lets you (finally) feel what it’s like to soar through the sky as a bird. All you have to do is lie down on a meticulously designed machine with bird-like wings, a VR headset, motion sensors, and a fan in front of you. Then, you can almost literally flap your wings and go anywhere you like!
See this multi-sensory experience in a video:
Arcadia Earth
In a world grappling with environmental challenges, “Arcadia Earth” in New York City uses immersive technology to educate and inspire action.
This environmental exhibition uses AR, VR, and interactive equipment to take you on a multi-sensory journey through Earth’s ecosystems. You may find yourself deep in an ocean of plastic, use AR to see how a majestic forest has been lost to deforestation, transport to endangered habitats using VR, and more.
Arcadia Earth is a prime example of how immersive technology can be a powerful tool to create an emotional connection to a topic, educate audiences, and advocate for a good cause.
Conclusion
Immersive experiences are already transforming how we interact with machines, brands, and each other. Various technologies like AR, VR, haptic feedback, and 360° video and audio power these experiences. They allow for a plethora of new opportunities in many fields, and we only expect them to get more immersive and interesting over time!
Need help putting together your own immersive experience? Feel free to reach out!
Arya
