Don't ignore immersive marketing in 2025

As 2025 rolls around, many marketers are wondering what the ‘next big thing’ will be in the coming year. With so many channels, technologies and objectives to consider, it can be difficult to identify where new opportunities lie to enhance your marketing efforts.

One element that won’t change is customers demanding more from businesses. Quality service, personalised experiences and consistency across channels will all be key factors in buyers’ purchasing decisions. As a result, 89% of companies will compete primarily on customer experience.

So, if businesses want to differentiate and succeed, they’ll need to offer an experience that delights buyers. By bringing together new technologies, customer data and a compelling brand story, immersive marketing looks to be a solution businesses will start to explore in 2025.

What is immersive marketing?

Immersive marketing is when technologies are combined with creative storytelling techniques to create deeply engaging experiences for buyers. Although these experiences are virtual, they feel lifelike and multi-sensory. They are developed to give buyers new ways of interacting with a brand or products.

By forming closer emotional connections with customers, immersive marketing experiences help to build brand loyalty, trust and credibility. Marketers can also benefit from the huge amount of data collected during these interactions, which can be used to deliver more in-depth personalisation via other channels.

Will the immersive trend last?

With a few brands emerging at the forefront of this trend, immersive marketing has been touted by experts as the new frontier in content creation and experiential advertising. Its ability to make deeper brand connections and engagement with customers clears a hurdle many marketers were struggling to overcome.

These experiences are also opportunities to collect huge volumes of interaction data, which is invaluable to marketers looking to deliver next-level personalisation. The technologies and expertise required to develop these types of experiences are also becoming more accessible, making this trend more likely to stick.

However, with the benefits of the immersive experience also come risks. With the ability to create lifelike environments come business responsibilities over customer health and safety, welfare and data protection. Buyers in an immersive experience may not have full awareness of their decision making or the information being collected on them.

As such, understanding the ethical implications, taking steps to protect buyers and being transparent about information and technology use is essential for brands looking to build immersive experiences.

What will immersive marketing look like in 2025?

A range of technologies are already being used to build immersive experiences. However, there are some key trends which brands of all sizes may start taking advantage of in 2025.

Virtual try-before-you-buy

Ikea showrooms already offer buyers a unique shopping experience (meatballs, anyone). Now, the Swedish brand is taking this to a new level by having headsets instore which create a ‘virtual home experience’. These allow customers to narrow down their purchasing decisions by testing out different wall colours, furniture or see interior designs by day and night virtually.

Gucci customers don’t even need to go into stores with the luxury brand’s new virtual try-on tool. By downloading the Gucci app, customers can try on their shoes, bags, clothes and other accessories virtually via their phone. Also easily shareable on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, this viewer tool increased brand awareness, product discovery and conversions.

Check it out for yourself – click here

New experiences of the everyday

The development of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) smart glasses are revolutionising the way we experience the normal world. Big tech players like Apple, Google and Meta have already launched prototypes of these devices, which would allow users to access information, complete tasks, communicate or enjoy entertainment directly from their field of vision.

This opens up huge opportunities for the types of interactions brands can have with customers. For example, users can interact with social media and content platforms (TikTok and YouTube) via the Xiaomi Wireless AR Glass Discovery Edition.

Similarly, Meta and BMW are already researching the potential of AR and VR to enhance the experience of both drivers and passengers on journeys. From helping with navigation to playing movies and games, smart glasses could help brand perception shift from ‘normal’ to ‘supercool’ if used effectively.

AI assistants and influencers

Although there was some initial reluctance from customers on interaction with AI-generated models, they’re now starting to accept their help and influence.

Virtual models aren’t just starting to appear in advertising, like the Maybelline bot May, they’re also starting to affect purchasing decisions on social media. The virtual influencer Aitana Lopez has 340K followers and is earning her creators The Clueless around €3,000 per month through her endorsements, which include Olaplex and Pandora.

With the launch of technologies like the Meta AI Studio comes the ability for brands to build their own digital avatars and virtual models. These won’t just influence buying decisions, but help customers through the conversion journey, with even B2B businesses like The Wholesale Group introducing AI assistants to help buyers.

Make an impact in 2025

Even if your brand isn’t ready to develop immersive marketing experiences, we can help your business connect more effectively with your customers.

Whether you want a website that works better, social media that gets more likes or creative campaigns that blow your audience’s socks off in 2025, we can help. Call us on 01926 754038 or drop us an email at hello@designmc.org