In a panel wherein Ashish Kaul, CMO, Hero Realty; Dhruv Davar, CEO, Inextis Events; Nanni Singh, Chief Executive, Showcase Events; Ruchin Kohli, VP North EEMA and Founder & Director, Occasion Xperts and Shradha Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Grapes came together, and was moderated by Shantanu David, Senior Correspondent, exchange4media group, they spoke about the various facets of immersive technology being utilised as a part of experiential marketing, right from augmented reality (AR) to gamification at the exchange4media Red Carpet Experiential Marketing Summit 2024
Understanding that the concept of immersive is sort of a blend of physical as well as digital, it offers an interesting mix of brands and experiences like no other. In a panel wherein Ashish Kaul, CMO, Hero Realty; Dhruv Davar, CEO, Inextis Events; Nanni Singh, Chief Executive, Showcase Events; Ruchin Kohli, VP North EEMA and Founder & Director, Occasion Xperts and Shradha Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Grapes came together, and was moderated by Shantanu David, Senior Correspondent, exchange4media group, they spoke about the various facets of immersive technology being utilised as a part of experiential marketing, right from augmented reality (AR) to gamification.
Winning the heart – integrating immersive & experiences
Setting off the conversation and talking about some of the significant experiential marketing work that he has witnessed, Kaul mentioned that sports have remarkable opportunities, largely unexplored, for many reasons. “Sports is a clear winner when it comes to offering a holistic opportunity for the creator for the audience to be involved, in an immersive manner. And there is a tremendous opportunity for entertainment.”
Dawar spoke about their work for one of their clients which is a bank brand. The brand wanted to do something with the senior citizens - because that's the target group (TG) that they wanted to target, where everything that they do, including their banking, is strategic. “Not taking the run-of-the-mill route, we tied up with theatres like PVR Inox and more and created a retro movie lineup and showcased movies of Rajesh Khanna and the likes, from yesteryears. It brought people to tears.”
He also spoke about an experiential marketing campaign for a particular brand which helped them grow their ROI by 30X. “Most importantly, the ROI for me was the impact that the campaign created on the spot – which was the emotional connect.”
Ikea’s idea sticks
Singh elucidated the usage of AR by Ikea when it was coming up, “With the camping by Ikea, you could put your furniture in your house and you would see that from your phones - that put AR on the map for a regular audience.”
She also spoke about the growing and impressive usage of technology, drones, lasers and the various kinds of software that are available. Narrowing to the smaller niches events where they use technology, Singh mentioned using technology for a specific audience – the differently abled. “We use technology for the bigger events for more as an enhancement of our storytelling but also for the differently abled people where they felt engaged and included in the event. I think that for us was a huge success when it came to something which created an impact. Of course, the bigger the show, the better the impact and it just looks very glamorous, for sure.” She also went on to add that she and her team executed the Ayodhya event with zero technology – the personal touch matters in such cases, she brings out. She loves dabbling with technology for the events, as long as it can enhance and create a better story for them.
Amalgamating experiential & digital
Kohli spoke about a global AR social media experiential campaign for Invesco – the brand engaged with a lot of audiences based out of the US and other countries where they had virtual basketball nets. The message was that if one invests in Indian ETFs, undoing those basketball nets can grow their digital assets.
Agarwal, being from a digital marketing agency, humoured how sometimes there are chances of things going wrong at events, but how they choose and collect only the right parts and put it up digitally. She seconded Singh about Ikea’s fantastic implementation of creating a life-size blueprint of consumers’ houses that they could actually experience when they stepped into the Ikea stores.
“I also liked how can you include personalisation with technology. We did this for a real estate developer brand, where we were doing the event to showcase their accommodations. Before a family entered the flat, they were supposed to log in with their social credentials. All of a sudden all their pictures in the house were there - it made them look like the family was the owner of that flat. That helped us in terms of improving the conversion rate for the brand,” she specified.
Talking at the exchange4media Red Carpet Experiential Marketing Summit 2024 which took place on 27 December, 2024 at the Eros Hotel in the capital, the panel concluded by talking about their insights about the innovative technologies that are expected to improve the immersive experience, how the medium is not the message and more.
BW Reporters
She is the Senior Editorial Lead at Businessworld and majorly covers pieces on advertising, marketing, branding and experiential marketing. She writes closely for BW Marketing World and Everything Experiential.
