Part of our team coverage of Ready Player One’s immersive marketing.
The cold rain poured down onto the busy street and onto the Stacks; “I Ran” by Flock of Seagulls thumped loudly. For a second, I felt like I was walking straight into the world of Ready Player One, a book that has fundamentally defined my life as a Virtual Reality Producer. But that feeling soon passed. Here I was surrounded by cool stuff, but it was a zombie husk of an immersive experience. The marketing people said they wanted me to have fun, but it felt like they wanted my money more.
We are in a heyday of pop-up branded activations. Between Creep (Amazon), IT (WB) and The Strangers (Aviron Pictures), studios are erecting hybrids of site-specific immersive theatre and selfie installations in order to build awareness for their content.
The Ready Player One experience is billed as “an experiential, hyper-sharable maze in the heart of Hollywood,” and is a sequence of themed rooms filled with actors, retro video games, and “keys” for participants to find in order to enter “The OASIS.”
And stuff. So, so much stuff. My favorite part was Wade’s actual van set from the film. This thing made the drawers in Sleep No More look empty by comparison. I could have spent hours looking at all the clippings on the walls, including a lot of articles about James Halliday, the man who juggernauts the quest the film is centered around.
Maybe this room felt the most authentic as these items all did have meaning, at least for our hero Wade Watts. This was contrasted when walking into a lounge area filled to brim with 80’s technology and cultural artifacts. I had no association with these things. No matter how cool holding a VHS tape feels after not seeing one for a while (or ever, damned youth!), I can’t feel something other than “oh, cool.” It was like playing action figures and giving them no names or backstory — what’s the point, really?
Characters were on hand to help you get your perfect 80’s themed selfie or give you clues to find the keys to the OASIS. They were dressed as 80’s pop culture icons like Harley Quinn, Beetle Juice, and more. (Note: I suddenly realize that all the characters were in fact licensed Warner Bros. IP. Kudos to you, WB legal department!)
For promoting a movie all about a virtual reality, the maze had a glaring oversight — you couldn’t actually do any VR. Oh, you could watch actors wear VR headsets and emote, arms waving, lost in the coolness of the world you couldn’t see. And at one point, a crew of maintenance workers with giant squeegees, donning VR headsets to blend in, entered the experience to keep the sets dry from the rain. (They did not blend in.) But no, at no point could I strap in and see the OASIS for myself. This would have been the perfect opportunity to get people into VR for the first time and increase mass adoption, but it never happened.
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I don’t want to spoil what happens when you find all three keys, but it was a fun moment for participants set to Van Halen’s “Jump,” from the movie trailer. It felt almost perfectly planned as I entered the final room and the song began to play. But it was planned. Upon questioning, I found out from the lone actor in the final room that the song was on a continuous loop. More so than anything else I encountered, I take deep issue with this. Making someone listen to David Lee Roth on repeat for hours is cruel. Someone get in there and free this man.
When you triumphantly exit the maze, you are greeted by a gift shop. Hot Topic may have helped sponsor the event, but the Ready Player One store upon exit felt a tad bit heavy-handed. You’re already getting free marketing from participants, do you also need them to buy an ARTEMIS eyeshadow palette? (Note: I do really want the eyeshadow palette.)
While passing a Delorean, leaving yet another parking lot in Hollywood that was outfitted to-the-fucking-nines to promote a film, I wondered, “How successful can experiential marketing really be?”
It’s hard to estimate how much money studios and brands are pouring into these pieces, but they claim authenticity is paramount. In WARC, Steven Cardwell, HBO’s Director of Program Marketing & Marketing Strategy, spoke about the impact of the recent Sweetwater Westworld activation at SXSW: “We get this question a lot: How do you measure success? What’s the ROI for this activation? Or this campaign? And it’s a feeling,” he said.
I love this sentiment, but this seems incredibly hard to pin down. AdAge ran a gorgeous piece this week with some great tidbits for stat heads. After a positive live marketing activation, people are likely to tell around 17 other people about their experience. Not only that, 49% of people create mobile video at these kind of events. And finally, 65% of brands with a core experiential marketing strategy see a positive sales correlation.
I have no doubt that in terms of brand awareness, the maze will be a success. The experience is currently sold out until April, and the #readyplayerone hashtags are already pouring in. But that authenticity — the real lasting impression on people — remains elusive. This experience did not make me fall more in love with the film, and would not have made me go see a film of which I wasn’t already aware.
Here you had money and amazing actors and a real opportunity to get people excited. But instead, participants are inundated with piles of STUFF. Stuff to photograph, stuff to touch ,and stuff to buy. Yes, Ready Player One is a book about ephemera, but more so, it’s about a feeling. Intelligent, detailed storycraft shouldn’t be ignored. In the future, I’d love to see less emphasis on throughput and more on creating detailed experiences — quality over quantity — that leave people with lasting impressions, and not just a photo for social media. In other words: build a fan for life.
If the hubbub over the Westworld experience at SXSW is any indication, we as a society are ready for a deeper level of immersion.
The Ready Player One Challenge is open through April 1st. Advance tickets are all reserved, but walk-ups are still availible.
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