Bridging the gap between the online and offline customer experience
[vc_row row_height_percent=”0″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ shift_y=”0″ css=”.vc_custom_1477409608576{padding-left: 5% !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]When it comes to online experiences, the modern consumer craves an immersive experience in which they can fully engage with a brand. A key brand challenge is optimising the customer experience in both the physical and digital realm.
Arguably buoyed by the Pokémon Go craze of 2016 where the world went wild for an app that started as an April Fool’s joke, brands have started to take note of the consumer appetite for virtual experiences as a means of seamlessly marrying the online and offline experience.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”66121″ media_width_percent=”100″][vc_column_text]We’ve seen Ebay join forces with Australian retailer, Myer, to create “the world’s first virtual department store”: a virtual space which consumers can visit by mounting their smartphone in a simple Virtual Reality headset. Here on home turf, Harvey Nichols launched its new menswear floor alongside a virtual experience that allows consumers to take a tour of the retail space whilst browsing and buying products en route.
Virtual experiences look set to play an increasingly important role for brands in connecting with their consumers and building brand awareness, especially considering this can increase emotional attachment to a brand by as much as 27% according to recent studies by advertising technology company YuMe and research company Nielsen.
Time for brands to look at their online experience in the same way as their offline experience, then?
The Car People: a unique offline experience
The Car People’s USP is the hassle–free buying experience. Every Car People showroom is designed around the consumer, they’re in the driving seat and can do what they want in the order they want. There’s no pressure and no hassle and The Car People have always focused on brilliant service, good value and dispelling the negative industry stereotype of aggressive sales people pushing you into something you don’t want.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”66122″ media_width_percent=”100″][vc_column_text]According to impartial customer reviews on Reevoo, 95% of customers would buy from TCP again because of the hassle-free experience they provide.
The challenge: how to optimise TCP’s online presence to drive consumers to the showroom
Propaganda’s brief was to explore how TCP could replicate the offline brand experience online to drive consumers to the showroom . . .
Following a comprehensive market audit, it was obvious that TCP were doing lots of things right! However, amongst other elements, it became clear that they needed to deliver a unique, individual and memorable online experience which put the consumer firmly in the driving seat.
Our solution was to create an innovative 360° virtual tour for TCP’s Manchester, Sheffield and Wakefield sites which allows consumers to experience the real–life TCP showroom in a digital environment, entirely on their terms.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”66123″ media_width_percent=”100″][vc_column_text]Consumers can navigate each site in 360° and we’ve embedded copy and videos and hidden fun “Easter Eggs” to create an engaging and fully immersive experience. You can even view the tour in Virtual Reality with a VR headset!
We’ve worked closely with 360Imagery to craft the tours and we’re reliably informed that The Car People tour is “something that hasn’t really been tried before. It’s cutting edge. . . it’s forged a new trail by combining pinned videos, pop out and visual and audio hotspots”.
So, what are you waiting for?! Take a tour now![/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”66124″ media_width_percent=”100″][/vc_column][/vc_row]