What will the future of experiences look and feel like?
A SPECIAL insights REPORT FOR EXPERIENCE CREATORs
Hanging out at a music festival. Taking the family to Disneyland. Entering a packed sports stadium with goosebumps. Going to a conference. Yeah, that was clearly not 2020.
The so-called experience economy has gone through a lot this year. Like almost no other industry, it was curtailed by COVID-19 health restrictions, to the point that the New York Times declared it dead. Bringing large groups of people together for special, emotional, worthwhile moments—in short, for awesome events—wasn’t even remotely feasible. But while from a consumer point of view, with a vaccine now on the horizon, there’s hope things might get “back to normal” soon, those of us responsible for creating experiences need to grapple with a new world: the pandemic has shifted culture, business, and much of our lives online; an influx of new virtual experience formats over the last months has set new standards; and, more and more, a new hybrid reality is emerging, where virtual and in-real-life experiences are closely interwoven.
So what will the future of experiences look and feel like? Which new design principles and strategic anchors should those creating experiences embrace? Which new experiential marketing skills do brands and organizations need to have to impact their customers or employees?
We see things evolving along four major storylines:
Make Distance Beautiful
Digital-Experience Playgrounds
Conscious Hedonism
A Local Universe