Even before the world went on lockdown, the future of events was set to take flight with Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed reality trends, which are collectively called immersive experience.
The market size of this combined sector is expected to hit $30 Billion by 2030.
Moreover, the consumer spending on AR & VR technologies are to reach $7 Billion by 2020, which is more than any other industry based on its standalone capacity.
However, creating an experience that genuinely immerses your audience is not an easy task, whether you are developing a VR game or throwing an event. Event attendees of this generation want more than just the usual experiences,. Impressing them will need a revamp of conventional performances with out of box thinking, for an exceptional event. They expect an experience that enlightens and inspires them.
Immersive experiences transform an ordinary event into an unforgettable adventure and make engaging with a brand feel natural. This brings about an opportunity for brands to take a closer look at the lifestyles and interests of their communities.
The most immersive experiences can be achieved by surrounding the event with engaging technological aspects. If used well, technology can be a powerful tool for event marketers catering to any industry.
So here are a few ideas to ride the wave of immersive experience.
3D Mapping Projections:
Due to their size and scope, 3D images can be mapped to diverse surfaces for projections and illumination. 3D mapping can create a dramatic impact on a large scale at a lower cost than many.
It has the power to transform the events more mesmerizing. Artists and advertisers commonly use it give a new immersive dimension to the images and videos.
To illustrate, on Montreal’s 375th anniversary, they turned the entire event more immersive with 3D projection mapping technology. They intertwined art, culture, and technology in an equally impressive proportion there. And today, it is quite a common trend across the event industry to tell the stories via this appealing technology.
Until recently, a study found that 3D mapping campaigns can run for a day or week and yet failed to make an impact on marketers. The primary reason for this outcome is the lack of understanding of technology by event planners and marketers.
As a result, only a few people have seen this magnificent phenomenon, and yet the potential for decision-makers who are willing to pioneer this technology is enormous.
Ambient Interactivity:
When you combine digital and physical interactions yet another form of immersive technology is created “Ambient Interactivity”. This form of technology offers user-friendly, natural interactivity that is well suited for event marketing.
The core software technology that helps to bring this ambient interactivity is nothing but artificial intelligence. It is, in fact, a kind of intelligence with more sophisticated algorithms dubbed as ambient intelligence.
Ambient interactivity is well-referred to as the interactive form developed within physical environments such as interactive windows, walls, and tables. However, it is becoming more fluid today. Today, ambient interactivity is giving scope for many sectors, such as to engage their audience.
“Marcus Wallander (Digital creative official @ Great Works) says ambient interactivity is such a powerful tool for every sort of retailers to attract the customers than any other media.”
Ambient interactivity is designed primarily as a futuristic concept presentation mode that avails information sharing inside the organization. This technique demonstrates how technology can be transmitted automatically and transparently without direct human interaction.
Augmented Reality
Events of all sorts have taken Augmented Reality as a serious business. Eventbrite report says 87% of event managers are largely favoring augmented Reality in the last year. However, it is not based on an abstract conception but factual data.
Augmented Reality has taken over the world by storm in recent years. For example, AR has allowed apps like Pokemon GO attain incredible success, that surpasses Twitter in active daily users. The launch of Pokemon GO paved the way for AR apps to launch its first real commercial into the lives of millions.
And its success can make a massive impact on significant implications for big events. The success of AR is not going anywhere; if anything, it’s expanding into AR wearables, which allows event managers to design their activities thematically.
This scope of AR allows event handlers to transform their venue into a tropical paradise or the top of the Eiffel tower. Virtual assistants are tailoring to your individual needs using customised programs catering exclusively for you throughout the event.
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality is gaining popularity all around the globe. It got an exploding reach over multiple events as well as the commerce sectors over these years. Even with the expensive implementation process, VR can be used to conjure up new worlds for its users.
VR takes us one step forward, one step ahead in time and our ways to everyday life increasingly. Snapchat gave us the real picture of the impact of VR trend that our world has by providing a unique streaming experience of Golden Globe through their spectacles.
In addition, brands like Lufthansa, Huawei, Chevrolet etc. have been immersing their audience with Virtual Reality experience.
Plus, industries such as events, travel, and music are largely leveraging this deeper immersive model to engage their audience in a better way, for it surpasses the limitation of augmented intelligence far higher and allows users to remotely access events via their headsets and get themselves front row seats.
VR is impressive at a level unachievable by any other tech in providing immersive experience and bringing in traction amongst event handlers.
Supernet
Many of the technological innovations of the future are, in fact, on our doorstep. An interesting one amongst them is Supernet. By utilizing the full potential of the internet within the event industry, you can exploit an immersive experience like never before, which can be streamed to absolutely anyone anywhere.
This is just scratching the surface of it; Supernet will undoubtedly see an unimaginable increase in the speed of data, which will open up new possibilities for significant events allowing attendees to upload and download terabytes of data.
Importantly, Supernet will reduce the latency time and propels the data exchange speed across the network. As events are more likely to adopt immersive technologies this improvement in network speed undoubtedly helps them to perform the events uninterruptedly.
For example, major corporations like Google X are investing highly in this technology via projects such as Loon. However, the Supernet will soon become the standard for the venue hosting events since network speed is an integral part of this technology.
Big Data
With the implementation of Supernet, Big data can benefit immersive technologies mainly as a resource that has phenomenal potential.
As the network carries more data with accuracy and stability, the major problems that have been confronting the sector will reduce.
If data from events is combined with the Supernet, you could paint an incredibly detailed picture of every attendee, by gearing everyone and you can get deep customer insight with predictive analytics.
However, Big Data’s involvement in events will build customer profiles that have log records of the events that they have been, which events they kicked, which ones they will likely favor in the future. With this much potential, the stored data will give you a heads up on your customers better than ever.
Drones and Transportation
With the rise of drones, logistics will become much easier to handle in event industries. However, its scope is not limited at its mobile transportation capacity, Drones can take part in creating Interactive experiences which make for another cutting edge vertical that drone technology has contributed to the event and entertainment sector.
Also, combining the fun of video gaming experience and drone technology where the users dive into the augmented world Drone interactive is a next-level immersive experience that joins the team.
Many brands are working to combine both VR and drone technology to deliver a better experience.
The application of Virtual Reality with drones to get accurate snaps and experience a stable live visual experience is found to be a gem that is not at all leveraged at its heights.
More companies are working on developing better VR drones to provide an engaging experience for the users, and it will be utilised for event sectors as well.
Artificial Intelligence
I enables immersive experiences much faster with higher fidelity than ever before. AI promises to empower attendees to interact with those experiences in real-time.
AI personalizes experiences and provides relevant information in real-time. With prodigious processing power AI comes with invaluable abilities beyond content creation.
AI shines in learning from user interaction and reaction to predict the next demand instantaneously. With AI-powered 3D tools and spatial design, you can make it easier to bring stories around your event alive.
Conclusion
Speculations aside, this is an exciting time in the events industry. In the event industry, all these methods of experiences will constitute improving Immersive marketing practices and have become less of a novelty shortly. Further, it will play more integral roles in broader brand marketing campaigns.
The technology of this level will undoubtedly overcome the current limitations faced by event organizers and bring in a landscape that has very different values. The future is far from certain, and yet it looks exciting with the immersive experiences waiting to unfold.