The days when you could copy your competitors to drive audience engagement are long gone.
Digital ads have become white noise, making it increasingly difficult to engage the right customers.
So, how can brands truly make waves in an oversaturated market?
It takes courage, creativity, and embracing innovative approaches to turn into a memorable brand and build meaningful relationships with the audience.
Founder and CEO of Fivestone Studios Traylor Woodall joins us to discuss the power of interactive and immersive experiences as the key to engaging consumers with a brand on a deeper, more emotional level.
Who Is Traylor Woodall?
Traylor has over 25 years of experience in the creative industry, encompassing roles in graphic design, motion graphics, and immersive multimedia production. He is a firm believer in the power of creative culture and collaboration, and he lives for those rare situations where a creative idea becomes greater than the sum of its individual parts.
Businesses often fail to create memorable brand experiences and engage their audiences.
Traylor believes that those brands who play it safe or copy their competitors miss the opportunity to stand out.
Memorable brand experiences require boldness and originality. Thus, he says that it takes a courageous brand to try something new.
Additionally, he highlights that insufficient planning for time and budget is another issue.
“Compelling interactive installations takes time and resources to pull off. Brands that live in a reactive or last-minute state will not be able to pull off serious, groundbreaking work,” he adds.
Enhancing Brand Engagement Through Interactive and Immersive Experiences
We were curious to hear from Traylor what interactive installation truly means.
“An interactive installation is an experience built into a physical location that utilizes some type of technology and/or media elements that allow visitors to engage and respond to the content or narrative,” he answers.
According to him, there are various use cases for interactive installation, including:
- Tradeshows and events
- Executive briefing or sales centers
- Lobby experiences
- Public spaces
- Retail
But how can brands leverage these to create memorable brand experiences?
“The keyword is ‘interactive.’ Much of what brands create is often a one-way conversation, one that customers quickly turn off and ignore.
Properly designed interactive installations allow for stickier engagement, by providing agency in what they want to learn and discover,” Traylor says.
He emphasizes another key point — “immersive”.
“To whatever degree these interactive installations can engage more than just sight and sound, or come to life on one or more screens, brands have a greater chance to have deeper, more meaningful engagements with their customers,” he adds.
Experiential marketing as an advertising strategy focuses on creating immersive and interactive experiences to engage consumers with a brand.
Watch our video to learn more about the different types of experiential marketing:
Traylor also shared the key benefits of interactive installations over traditional displays in terms of audience engagement and brand experience:
- Interactive installations provide a fresh angle for brands to engage audiences outside of the expected mobile devices, desktops, and TVs.
- Interactive installations can enable a deeper immersion than watching content on a mobile device or home TV, as more senses can be engaged and surrounded.
- Depending on the placement of these installations, they can touch new or hard-to-reach audience segments at scale.
Tips for Using Interactive Installations Strategically
For businesses considering leveraging interactive installations, Traylor shares a few tips on how to incorporate them strategically.
He suggests starting with the story and the desired end customer experience.
“Technology should only support the end goal, not lead. i.e., we often have clients that just attended a big trade show and were wowed by a certain technology or innovation where they ask us to do something like that for their next big activation or installation,” he explains.
He also advises talking to an experienced interactive design agency because interactive and immersive installations require specialized skills in experiential media design and development, AV hardware and technology, as well as physical design and fabrication.
Lastly, Traylor says that just like any interactive/web application, brands should use analytics to track:
- Dwell time
- Number of users
- What content is being viewed
Interactive installations can offer free content, sharing on socials, in exchange for contact information, he adds.
Traylor also shares their Kia Times Square project which spanned 44 screens over six blocks.
He explains that Kia was launching a new EV in North America and needed maximum impact. That drove the decision to do the reveal in Times Square.
“Our incredible partner Gail & Rice spent a huge amount of time coordinating with the 14 different companies that owned these screens. A full-time producer handled scheduling, file delivery, and testing.
We utilized a special software called Disguise that allowed us to review all the content with the Kia executive team every week.
Our team built a 3D model of Times Square and was able to ‘fly around’ in real-time to each of the 44 screens so the client could approve and see the experience from critical angles,” he says.
He adds that they used the same technology to make sure content played cohesively across the entire area.
The story begins with the EV being born by a lightning strike and then driving from the Rockies to Manhattan.
At this key moment, electric currents streamed onto a stage in Times Square and the EVs rolled out.
A massive power surge then lit up all the Times Square screens, creating a stunning backdrop for the unveiling.
The Most Effective Ways to Promote a Brand in 2025
Being different is a crucial pillar for businesses to thrive in today’s oversaturated market.
As we approach 2025, having a strong brand promotion strategy is essential for standing out and resonating with target audiences.
According to Traylor, businesses should do the following to effectively promote themselves:
- Go beyond interactive. Make experiences immersive and surround your customers with your story and brand.
- Be open to combining multiple disciplines and approaches to scale your impact. For example, have projection mapping react to the movements of choreographed dances or actors. Better yet, create an interactive experience that responds to audience input!
- Tap into the primal human need for storytelling, starting and ending with a compelling narrative.
Watch our video to find out what is more effective: content marketing or advertising.
Traylor also shares that for startups to maintain a strong online presence in 2025, they should have great websites with fresh, updated content and stay active and responsive on social media by having a solid strategy and engaging posts.
Remember, at the end of the day, a memorable brand drives engagement and sales.
So, don’t be afraid to be bold, unique, and immersive. Surround your customers with your story and brand.
