Why We Love Immersive Marketing Experiences (And How Your Brand Can Put Them To Work)

Traditionally, your marketing campaign sits on one side and the customer sits on the other. The goal is to bring them together. But an emerging marketing trend aims to take a different approach.

Immersive campaigns build marketing experiences around the individual customer, increasing their engagement and strengthening their bond with the brand.

A great example of an immersive marketing experience emerged recently in the form of a campaign to promote the new Australian indie movie Kill Me Three Times.

In today’s post, we’ll tell you how that campaign worked, why we love it, and what you can do to make your next marketing campaign more immersive.

Killer Marketing: Total Immersion in the Criminal World

Kill Me Three Times is an Australian movie starring Simon Pegg of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame. The film was released in U.S. theaters and video-on-demand in April 2015.

Here’s the IMDB summary:

“Professional hit-man Charlie Wolfe finds himself in three tales of murder, blackmail and revenge after a botched contract assignment.”

The immersive experience for Kill Me Three Times was developed by digital ad agency Loud&Clear. Here’s the premise of this personalized marketing campaign:

You accidentally witnessed a murder committed by Charlie Wolfe and one of his thugs and recorded it on your smartphone. Now they are hunting you down anyway they can—phone calls, texts, email, social media—to get their dirty hands on that video.

An Inside Look at ‘Kill Me Three Times’ Immersive Experience

We signed up for the immersive campaign to see what it had in store for us…

Here’s a quick primer on how this campaign works:

1. You watch a first-person video where you witness Charlie and Sam killing a man.

2. You sign up for the immersive experience by providing your phone number, email, and Facebook and Twitter access (all are required).

3. For three days, a story unfolds with you at the center via those channels—with about 5-7 messages coming through at different times each day, some with images, some linking to different online videos.

The story goes like this (spoiler warning for the immersive experience):

Campaign Log, Day One: What We Experienced

After signing up for the campaign, you start receiving communications the next day. To give you a better idea of what kind of communications you receive, we documented the first day’s contacts:

TEXT – 4-18 10:07 a.m.
U slippery little bastard. U know we saw u with yr camera phone. U’ve poked yr nose in the wrong man’s business.

TWITTER – 4-18
I know your face. Hand over the phone and video or this goes south real quick. *Tweet included a link to a personal picture from our Facebook page

PHONE – 4-18, 2:29 p.m.
Answered, very threatening. The basic message, delivered in a mean gravelly voice: Turn the video over, don’t make this worse.

TWITTER – 4-18
Don’t want to deal? Fine but this ain’t over, I’m just getting started.

EMAIL – 4-18, 7:38 p.m.
Subject: We know who you are
You must think this is a game. Either that, or you take me for a joke. *This email included a link to an online video that integrated pictures of friends and family members taken from Facebook

The next two days followed a similar pattern of receiving calls, texts, emails and tweets at seemingly random intervals throughout the day.

3 Things We Love About This Campaign

Now that you know a little bit more about how the Kill Me Three Times immersive experience works, let’s talk about what we like about it…

1. It takes you by surprise.

You keep forgetting about it and it keeps popping up. That’s pretty fun. It’s also something different and memorable.

2. It pulls you into the story.

The campaign lets you get to know the characters and tone of the movie. It increases your exposure to the product.

3. It creates a deeper level of engagement.

You end up feeling strangely invested in the movie. As though you are somehow a part of it. And that makes you more likely to rent/buy/watch the movie.

3 Questions to Ask to Make Your Marketing More Immersive

Want to think immersive with your next campaign? Ask your team these key questions when you’re going through the development phase:

1. How can you put people in the middle of your marketing campaign?

2. How can you get that extra level of involvement in a way that’s valuable or fun for your customers—and moves them closer to your product or service?

3. How can you use different online tools and communication channels to accomplish that goal?

3 Examples of How You Can Integrate Immersive Experiences in Your Marketing

You’re not a movie about a hitman, so how can you create immersive experiences your customers will appreciate, value and remember? Here are a trio of examples to provide some inspiration so you can start dipping your toes in the immersive waters:

Example #1: A SHARING Experience

If you’re a local pub, give new customers a reason to come back. If they Instagram a photo at your spot and tag the pub, have them come back for a drink on the house.

Example #2: A SEARCHING Experience

If you’re a clothing store and have a seasonal line coming out, create a scavenger hunt for customers. If they find all 10 of the new spring colors, give them an additional 10% off.

Example #3: A SURPRISING Experience

If you’re a B2B and want to engage your clients—create a personalized postcard to your lapsed or loyal customers and direct them to a landing page, specific to the call-to-action. Give them something new that they haven’t seen from you. Make them notice you and get them involved.

Create Memorable Marketing Experiences for Your Customers

Think customer experience… but anywhere, or everywhere. Figure out what experience will work best for your customers and make it happen. Don’t limit yourself to just in-person, in-store, online, email, mobile, whatever. Think beyond the norm and without limitations.

Do these experiences cost money? Yes. And you’ll have to do your own due-diligence to find the lifetime value of your customers. Because that’s what’s at stake. Creating unique experiences can be the tipping point for your brand to build a stronger relationship with your customers.