Immersive content formats and future audiences: 2018 report

Immersive Content Formats for Future Audiences: A report produced by Limina Immersive for Digital Catapult, June 2018
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A look back at the range of creative, immersive content experiences of the last 4 – 5 years, identifying patterns, trends and insights.

Findings include:

• Immersive media has the potential to be a creative medium in its own right.  
• Identifies 15 creative format trends/potentialities 1. Activity simulators, 2. Short fictions, 3. Data Visualisers, 4. Immersive maker tools, 5. Re-visualising testimonies, 6. Digital treasure hunts, 7. Perspective shifters that enable people to walk in another’s shoes , 8. Up close and personal encounters, 9. Audio journeys, 10. Behind the scenes access all areas, 11. Wonder in Education, 12. Fantasy trip, 13. Best seat in the house, 14. Virtual hangouts and 15. Enhanced filters
• Once the technology has been more widely adopted (which the report suggests is likely to occur soon), the largest audiences will be the early adopters and then late majorities.
• Thus far, the most successful creative formats with the audience have been 1. Immersive maker tools, 2. Activity simulators and 3. Fantasy trips.
• The most successful formats in general provided the material for audience members to create their own personal narrative, a format sometimes known as story-doing, or story-living.  Popular formats often involved the audience storifying their own experience. 
• The most successful formats also tend to generate a mix of both spatial and mental immersion.
• High quality graphics and animations tend to enhance the sense of presence.
• Standard scalability principles still apply, so that platforms, or tools like maker kits are more likely to scale.

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​Allen, C. and Tucker, D., 2018. Immersive Content Formats for Future Audiences. Digital Catapult.