When a few of us at XDA had a recent opportunity to check out the Sphere in Las Vegas, we jumped at it. No, we didn’t attend one of the incredible U2 concerts that has been making major headlines due to its mesmerizing sensorial experience filled with out-of-this-world motion graphics, music, and art. We did, however, get to experience the Sphere’s Postcard from Earth, its widely popular sci-fi film that took us on an immersive journey of the past and future of our planet. From the hi-def screen to the 18K resolution to the beam-forming sounds and haptic-technology seating — we left the experience feeling shook, both physically and emotionally. And it had us begging the question: what does this mean for brand experiences and corporate events? How will the Sphere catapult the already changing bar of immersive experiences? And how can brands and organizations tap into that change?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS - BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
As you walk up to this massive illuminated orb that looks like it was plopped in the middle of the Las Vegas strip, you can’t help but be awestruck. The outside of the Sphere itself acts as a huge next-gen billboard for various advertisements and promotional content — typically featuring three to four brands each day for four hours of total screen time. And this ain’t cheap – the average cost of an ad featured on The Sphere ranges from $450K to up to $2M. We’ve never seen anything like this before – the structure looks and feels like living and breathing architecture that you can’t take your eyes off of – so it's no wonder brands are paying big bucks to get their content on this life sized LED snowglobe.
What does this mean for brand marketers? Be on the lookout for non-traditional platforms to tell your brand stories. Yes, they can be wildly pricey but they can also be wildly effective. So relook at your ad spend and think about fresh and novel places to let your story unfold.
ACTIVATIONS THAT CATAPULTED US INTO 2075
As you transition from the outside into the venue, you are fully transported into an all white, blue-toned futuristic space shuttle-esque interior. The foyer space is filled with activations and stations – enabling you to witness the technology of tomorrow through holographic avatars in a way that feels like what a sporting event in 2075 might feel like. The story told throughout the foyer was interesting to us – there were five “stations” (Productivity, Connection, Innovation, Longevity, Creativity) – each unpacking the power of artificial intelligence, the metaverse, quantum computing, biotechnology, and machine learning. We felt like the intent of these stations was to not only educate people, but to excite them about the endless possibilities that all of these technological advancements are going to provide us.
What does this mean for brand marketers? You start to tell your story from the moment someone steps foot in your venue. Don’t undervalue this moment — first impressions are everything. We’re in this boundary-pushing era of experience design, and audiences are increasingly demanding more performance-based entertainment that not only makes them feel things more deeply, but that challenges them as well as entertains them. The question is: what are we making them feel and why? This is where a tight creative strategy, red thread, and narrative arc comes into play.
THE THEATER EXPERIENCE
But the true star of the show was, of course, the theater experience. Walking into the space was truly otherworldly – sitting down in your seats, not knowing what is to come, taking in the atmosphere as your mind tingles and your heart starts to race – it's a feeling that is hard to describe, but one you’re sure to remember. Once the film begins, you’re immediately captivated and transported into another dimension. You hear an audible gasp amongst the crowd the very second that the entire screen takes over the theater and you feel as though you’re on a 4D ride of a lifetime. The seats vibrate, a mist gently wafts through the air, and the immersive media of countless hi-res LED tiles, makes you feel like you’re flying through a forest. The film was breathtaking both from a visual and an experiential perspective. And to our surprise, the majority of the audience didn’t even pull out their phones for the entirety of the film.
To us the Sphere felt like a must-see show. It felt like we were on the brink of a new chapter of media, cinema, and technology. It felt like a just-be-present-and-enjoy-the-moment type of experience. And when we started looking at the future line-up of events at the Sphere — which included, yes, more concerts (Dead & Company) but also immersive streaming, with UFC pay-per-view looking to make its debut center stage at the Sphere this year, and HPE just announced its first ever keynote in the space – it left us at the edge of our seats, so excited for what is to come with immersive experiences and spaces like this one. We can’t wait to see what comes next.
What does this mean for brand marketers? Sometimes more is more, and being present is more valuable than being digitally connected. Immersive spaces, as a medium, aren’t necessarily anything new. We’ve been looking at them for some time now. Immersive exhibitions from the likes of Van Gogh, Dalí, Kandinsky and Hockney fill every surface dripping with living art you walk through. And immersive art show installations like Refik Anadol’s Glacier Dreams and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Atmospheric Memory provide safe spaces to explore stories of dystopian futures. We’ve even seen the Fyre-Fest version of immersive experiences with the recent viral Willy Wonka experience in Scotland. But the Sphere gives you a front row seat, plants you in a world, and then gives you a cinematic experience that makes your guts feel like you’re gliding down a roller coaster. Where other experiences leave you free to wander on your own, the Sphere does an incredible job of tapping into the power of collective effervescence — the immense, undeniable power of a bunch of humans in the same space with a shared sense of awe, sensorial wonder, and imagination. Are we finally shifting away from an era of clicks and social shares as our metrics, to one of the attention economy with experiences that rattle our brains and bind us together as the most valuable metric of all?
We can’t wait to see what’s next (and be a part of building it).