The Feed is Fading

Why Brands Need to Embrace Deeper Digital Experiences

Digital experiences are getting deeper. They are evolving from the flat feeds of social media where engagement rates have fallen under 1%, to increasingly immersive environments. Young consumers are reshaping the rules of digital for everyone in ways that brands need to understand and act on to gain a strategic advantage. That means knowing what your customers love and creating value-added digital experiences that break through.

For the re-launch of Kylie Cosmetics, MI&C applied this exact approach. We blended the worlds of beauty, nightclubs, and avatars into an immersive experience to introduce Kylie’s new line. Fans could navigate through a virtual nightclub, access avatars with different looks, and shop each style. Integrating their interests was paramount to creating an engaging experience, driving some collections to sell out within hours.

As we spend more of our time in virtual environments, the lines between IRL and URL will continue to blur. Mark Zuckerberg is banking on it. With 10,000 employees focused on augmented reality and virtual reality, it’s clear he sees the future of social being in the metaverse. Having recently teamed with Rayban to launch “Rayban Stories” (smart sunglasses that shoot video, take photos, play music and make calls), Facebook is getting closer to bringing new forms of reality to the masses, ripe for brands to leverage.

Skate brand Vans saw how much time their customers were spending in Roblox (a gaming-centric metaverse in the making) and built “Vans World”, an immersive experience they knew their audience would love. The environment features playable skateparks, giveaways, and stores where users can customize, and purchase digital shoes, skateboards, and apparel. Points can be won for trying new tricks and participating in challenges, a sticky strategy that drives repeat visits. Fans can flex their Vans looks in other games on Roblox, driving digital word-of-mouth to the 43 million players on the platform. 

Connecting to new forms of digital culture doesn’t have to mean building entirely new worlds, smaller steps can be just as effective as Arizona Ice Tea discovered. Bored Apes Yacht Club is an NFT collection that has generated $580 million dollars in sales since April 2021, been auctioned at Sotheby’s, and become a new status symbol among the digerati, celebrities, and sports figures. Instead of launching their own branded NFTs, Arizona “aped-in” to the excitement and bought one of the digital collectibles themselves. This brought immediate “cool-kid” status and drove a spike in earned media. 

NFT ownership provides full commercial rights to the image, meaning Arizona Ice Tea can now feature the ape on their cans, in ads, and across their digital channels creating a wealth of storytelling opportunities. It’s like buying out a celebrity that you own forever and never ages. With Visa recently buying a Crypto Punk and Playboy buying a “Madam Bomb” from the Adam Bomb Collection by streetwear brand The Hundred’s, the strategy is becoming a way for brands to enter NFT culture with minimal risk and plenty of marketing upside.

As our lives become increasingly digital, it’s time for brands to rethink how they engage with audiences and optimize for the near future – especially as organic engagement flattens across social media and third-party tracking cookies lose their crunch. While it’s still early days for the metaverse, NFTs and mixed reality, the state of our current reality is abundantly clear. Brands need to focus less on impressions and more on immersions.
 

MI&C Case Study:

Kylie Cosmetics Virtual Launch

For the re-launch of Kylie Cosmetics, MI&C created an immersive experience with our partners Hi From The Future and DotDot that welcomed customers to shop the new collection. This virtual nightclub-themed world showcased makeup looks on four digital avatars where customers could find hidden links to an Instagram filter and chat with other guests. The experience gave Kylie fans a new way to connect with the brand, and created excitement around the launch with several products selling out on the first day. 
 

EPISODE 7

Reaching the Latinx community with Gen Z activist, Sara Mora

In Episode 7 of Kids in Control, Gen Z human rights activist, storyteller, and strategist Sara Mora teaches brands how to take steps towards activism, why they shouldn’t fear cancel culture, and how to reach the Latinx community.

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In collaboration with Advertising Week, we invite you to listen to Kids In Control where we explore the world of Gen-Z culture through the lens of its most prolific thought leaders. 

Created for future-forward marketing professionals, this series taps into the Gen Z mindset that is changing how we work, play, shop and socialize. From brand loyalty and influencer marketing to social media and social justice, Kids In Control offers insights into the changemakers themselves through candid conversations.

This article originally appeared in the September 23rd, 2021 issue of Moving Image & Content’s agency newsletter. Subscribe here.