What can brands learn from the Arts?
Artists have always created innovative and exciting ways to captivate their audience. Brands could do worse than considering the arts and culture scene as competitors for consumer attentions – and actively learn from them in how to create immersive experiences.
This summer has seen some incredible cultural and immersive experiences around every corner. With the variety of experiences happening right now in the arts, theatre and music scenes here is a roundup of some of our favourite inspirational experiences and the key take aways brands can learn from them.
When it comes to creating a feel-good atmosphere ABBA Voyage takes the stage (literally!). The high tech concert from one of the world’s most iconic band was a staggering visual spectacles and one of the best shows our team attended this summer.
The show used a combination of avatars (ABBAtars), motion capture, projection graphics, computer generated imagery as well as 360 degree video and lighting all blended with “In real life” theatre crafts and effects to create a multi-layered, truly 3 dimensional experience of ABBA as if we were transported in back in time. Physical lighting features moving just above the audience’s heads in the auditorium paired seamlessly with their digital versions, and together with the live band enhanced the experience. This clever and thoughtful combination of elements made it almost impossible to distinguish the digital world from real life elements.
Although some of the elements weren’t in the real, physical world, the emotions created surely were – with smiles, amazement, happiness, and nostalgia filling the room. Ultimately this incredible experience immersed the audience in the magical world of ABBA and connected them to the commonality they all shared – love for the iconic band! It truly was impressive on every level!
A great point of inspiration for brands is to blend high tech and reality to create an environment to nurture connections, feel good emotions and to capture consumers in a moment that will be remembered. ABBA Voyage has the advantage of being the first concert of its kind to operate in this way, brands should move quickly to capitalise on the novelty factor of this kind of blended virtual and in real life experience.
High tech isn’t the be all and end all when it comes to
creating immersive activations. Yayoi Kusama’s Obliteration Room is the perfect example of low tech immersion.
This performative art experience consisted of a white room filled with white furniture,
where visitors were asked to stick colourful dots, anywhere they like.
Despite its simplicity and lack of technology, Kusama created an experience
that immerses visitors by giving them a leading role. The stark canvas, made
visitors’ decisions impactful. And, like with The Abba Voyage, the closed-off
room cut visitors off from their outside lives, focusing them on the simple,
yet joyful task of choosing where to place their colourful dots.
So for brands that believe giving their audience a ready-made event is the only way to go, this might be a point to stop and reflect. How can consumers play a part in creating the experience themselves? Consider how to make your activations more personal by letting visitors leave their impact to create a more powerful experience that doesn’t rely on big budgets and tech.
The immersive art exhibitions, Mexican Geniuses and Klimt Wonderland of Moving Paintings, are perfect for those who don’t just want to view art – they want to experience it.
These two exhibitions rely heavily on sight and sound. Video-mapping technology envelopes the audience from every angle, and along with digital displays, VR, and sound effects, they captivate the senses, making the experience inescapable. They created and atmosphere that magnified the feelings provoked by the original pieces and brought to life the ethereal nature of the artists’ work.
Interestingly, the experiences Flight and Séance by Darkfield, took a different approach. By eliminating the sense of sight entirely – they focussed visitors attention and heightened the remaining senses. These immersive performances were able to create thrilling, heart-racing experience, guided by darkness, spine-chilling 360º sound, and physical vibrations blurring the realms of reality.
Our senses have the power to captivate, and playing on the right ones can ensure the audience is totally hooked, giving full immersion…. Pretty powerful for brands trying to build relationships and memorable moments. Brand should always consider how heightening or dampening senses will affect the experience and elicit the right feelings at the right moment to amplify your message.
The Burnt City by Punchdrunk, is a masterclass in immersive theatre that takes you through a journey based on Greek mythology. With hauntingly beautiful staging elements, choreography and movement creating a mythical, dark setting, visitors are taken on a voyage unfolding all around them.
This production immerses visitors with the power of storytelling but not in a linear way. The narrative doesn’t have a beginning, middle and end as you might expect as audiences choose where they go and which actors to follow. This means everyone’s experience is entirely unique. Audiences could also attend the performance multiple times and see new narratives and intimate moments evert time .
The Limitless AI on the other hand utilised the innovative lens of AI to create their immersive story, taking visitors on a 360º journey examining humanity. They amplified it with projected visuals, and sound, and a final live musical performance at the end.
What could this suggest for brands? Utilise all types of creative storytelling! Whether through tech or real life elements. A good story can have great power over its audience, which is even greater when the audience gets involved in the action.
The art, theatre and music industries are trail blazing when it comes to emerging technologies and immersing audiences to leave a lasting impression. Behind each of these events, there is an intention to make visitors feel a certain way thanks to a deep understanding of human emotions.
With a background in the theatre and the arts we have always drawn inspiration from these incredible immersive experiences and make them work for brands. We keep our client’s strategic goals in mind, and harness the human emotions, feelings and senses to create immersive events and activations. Whether we achieve that with cutting-edge technology, design, digital and physical experiences or full understanding of entertainment.
If you’d like to learn how we can help you create your next incredible, memorable brand experience or event, contact us at info@designscene.com
