The social media excitement generated over Nike Air Force 1 Low Tiffany & Co. “1837” (aka “Air Force 1”) connected sneakerheads with the fashion, design and retail worlds. It appeared to be a turning point for web3-based marketing that immersive advertising is such an inherent part of.
You can’t force engagement
Brand powerhouses like Nike and Tiffany recognize the need to move on from reliance on ad units that interrupt online and offline activities.
To these marketers, the promise of immersive advertising is clear: invite direct, emotional connections between brands and consumers and don’t get in the consumer’s way with interruptions that annoy instead of inspire.
Snap’s statistics bears that out. Using smartwatches to pinpoint survey participants’ “neurological reactions” to immersive experiences from AR, Snap found that it can predict consumer behavior and business outcomes with “80% accuracy.” It’s a bold claim. But given the current “either you’re in it or you’re not” state of immersive advertising, Snap’s claims hold up.
Out of immersive
Immersive advertising’s appeal to marketers is due to several factors converging across media right now: online advertising fatigue has become deeply ingrained among everyone, especially younger demographics.
Gradual cookie deprecation and ad blockers have rendered traditional ad formats less valuable. As if that weren’t enough, digital advertising measurement challenges continue to be exacerbated by bots.
Conversely, these issues have forced marketers, agencies and publishers to ask how to measure engagement relative to other metrics. Advertisers and agencies are partnering with attention-tracking vendors to find solutions, but that may be a ways off. The gaming world has always presented unique barriers to effective advertising, though players like Roblox and major brands are assiduously trying to measure in-game advertising’s clear impact.
Meanwhile, the immersive format has begun to infiltrate other forms of advertising, including one of the old types of mass communication.
For years, analysts have been warning that digital media was a “push” format like the first four decades of linear TV. In the past, advertisers could interrupt the programming. But brands’ ability to access “attention-on-demand” is long gone.
As Cathy Oh, global head of marketing for Samsung Ads, has noted, gaming’s gains are only starting to influence brands. But the potential is being realized that for advertising to truly “work,” it needs to be part of the show. Immersive ads are the next big show.
