Immersive technology which blends the physical and digital worlds, is revolutionising modern marketing and advertising. Brands can now create engaging, interactive experiences, from virtual try-ons to augmented reality campaigns that become a talking point. WPP, one of the world’s largest advertising holding companies, is leading this transformation and is at the forefront of integrating immersive tech into its strategies. Dale Imerman, VP of Immersive Technology & AI at WPP, plays a crucial role in this process. With a rich background in tech-driven marketing, he is helping to shape the future of how brands connect with their audiences. He tells IMPACT what immersive technology means to the future of marketing and how WPP is leading this transformation. Edited excerpts:
Q] Can you explain immersive technology in simple terms to us? How is it related to modern-day marketing?
Immersive technology like VR and AR makes digital experiences feel real. VR takes you to a different world, and AR adds digital elements to your real world. These technologies help brands create fun and engaging experiences, show products in new ways, and connect with customers more personally. For example, you might try on virtual clothes with AR or take a VR tour of a car showroom from your home. This makes marketing more exciting and memorable for people.
In marketing, immersive technologies have become more popular over the last decade largely thanks to digital platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram offering tools for people to create augmented reality filters and effects. We’ve also seen these platforms launching AR media units so that advertisers can engage with people in more engaging ways than typical ads featuring only images and video. Many brands are also creating apps or leveraging WebAR in the smartphone browser with augmented reality functionality to allow a way to experience their products in 3D, create user-generated content, and facilitate commerce.
Q] How can brands use these technologies to connect with their customers better?
This interests me a lot because part of my job is to make WPP the best immersive technology company in the world. And we do so by regularly and extensively evaluating the different ways in which brands can benefit from these technologies.
To start with, immersive tech provides brands with innovative ways to engage and connect with people. They can create fully immersive environments, such as virtual showrooms or interactive storytelling experiences. Augmented reality is the most immediate opportunity in my view because it is accessible on smartphones which have reached critical mass in terms of global penetration. Virtual reality is evolving as the cost of headsets lowers, and more content becomes available, making them attractive for consumers to own. Things like 360-degree videos offer immersive tours, and holographic displays and interactive installations can also capture people’s attention at events and in retail spaces.
One area where I see a big opportunity to move the dial is with something called virtual try-on as it relates directly to commerce. This allows people to view a virtual product on themselves or in their physical surroundings to get a clear idea of how it might look before deciding to buy. For example, numerous eyewear, jewellery, and clothing brands let you ‘try on’ their items, while apps like IKEA Place let you preview furniture to see what it will look like in your home before you purchase it. We’re also seeing a lot of virtual try-on for footwear, makeup, and clothing. For e-commerce platforms, it can lead to a significant reduction in returns, which is currently one of the biggest costs and pain points for new and established online stores.”
Q] Can you share some examples of ad campaigns that have used these technologies and have impressed you?
A new collaboration between Coca-Cola and Marvel gives comic collectors a lot to collect—both in real life and the virtual world by turning physical collectables into digital ones. People can collect and scan a set of 30 Coke cans to reveal and interact with various Marvel heroes and villains, which are brought to life in augmented reality, creating exclusive content that you wouldn’t be able to see on film or social media.
I would also like to mention that one of my favourite AI-powered campaigns comes from India, which I feel is leading global digital transformation on many fronts. I loved how Cadbury used the power of technology to help small businesses during the COVID lockdown. They had the biggest Indian actor, Shah Rukh Khan, promoting hundreds of small businesses. It was a smart way to leverage technology to address real-life problems in a creative way powered by technology.
Q] You also mentioned that WPP is leading the way to Artificial Intelligence. Can you tell us more about these endeavours?
WPP has been making significant investments in AI, roughly 250 million pounds annually, so that we can ensure our people have the best tools at their disposal to deliver outstanding results for our clients using the latest technology. We’ve created WPP Open, an intelligent marketing operating system powered by AI, integrating all of WPP’s service offerings, technology, applications, and data in one place, enabling our clients and teams to work more efficiently and effectively.
WPP Open is a highly personalised operating system that can be tailored to reflect a company’s ways of working, standardising and automating marketing operations. It leverages AI to augment creativity, optimise workflows, leverage extensive data, and access cutting-edge apps.
Within WPP Open are several studios to make things more exciting, we have creative, media, and commerce studios, which allow our teams and clients to orchestrate and collaborate with each other. They would ordinarily be doing this as well, except now their skills are augmented with artificial intelligence in a safe and secure environment.
Q] Are you saying it automates the whole process of creating and running media campaigns for you? Does that mean it will eventually make human creativity and genius obsolete?
Human oversight is an absolute necessity in everything that we do. We spend a lot of time and resources training our people to work with these new technologies. To unpack it for you, we can explore three transformative ways our intelligent operating system can supercharge a team’s efficiency and creativity. AI features incorporated at the operating system level act like an AI Assistant working across the entire workflow. This ensures that data-driven insights are delivered precisely when needed, going beyond the limitations of individual tools or applications.
AI applications transform complex data into actionable insights, streamlining decision-making processes, optimizing marketing strategies, and enhancing creative outputs, providing a competitive edge in today’s dynamic market landscape.
Lastly, as a service, AI solutions are tailored to specific needs. From predictive analytics to automated reporting, these services empower people to make informed decisions, drive operational efficiency, and achieve strategic goals more effectively within WPP Open.
So, AI for me is not about replacing humans, but rather about augmenting human capabilities.
Q] Another problem that may arise is the ethical and environmental sustainability challenges, right? How is WPP placed to deal with that?
The company recognizes the importance of balancing innovation and environmental responsibility. AI has the potential to drive significant efficiencies and sustainability benefits by optimizing resource use, streamlining supply chains, reducing waste, and improving energy efficiency. For example, predictive analytics can forecast demand accurately, reducing overproduction or excess inventory. Our focus is on the energy efficiency of AI models and the infrastructure that we use.
We partner with the largest cloud providers in the world who also prioritize renewable energy. And they optimize their algorithms to reduce computational load, minimizing the carbon footprint of AI solutions. Our collaboration with industry leaders like Nvidia includes efforts to reimagine production with new creative possibilities. One of our businesses, Hogarth, explores how technology can inform creative, optimize shoots by anticipating future content requirements, and reduce duplication and waste. It positively impacts the end-to-end creative process while delivering more sustainable solutions for the industry.
When it comes to ethics, be it data safety or inclusivity, I know we take these aspects very seriously. We ensure that our models are trained on diverse and representative data sets. This also includes regular audits of AI models that we utilize and the outputs that they produce. But human oversight remains crucial. AI is a tool that goes hand in hand with man and machine. We also have very strict ethical guidelines in the use of AI, designed to ensure that our applications are used responsibly and the content they produce respects the dignity and diversity of all people.
