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The future is experience-oriented

Tuesday 18. February 2020 - Epson study: 69 percent of European millennials expect immersive environments for future events. A shift from consumption to experience is not only evident in the millennials, but also in the baby boomers and generations X and Z.

As the millennials turn away from pure possessive thinking, the demand for immersive experiences increases. This is prompting retailers to use technical developments in new ways to appeal to their audience even more. A recent study shows that this is the right way to go, as almost 70 percent of millennials expect future events to make their content intensively experienceable with large projections, interactive displays, holograms, virtual reality or augmented reality.
A study commissioned by Epson in Europe entitled The Experiential Future underlines how important immersive elements will be in the future for concerts, events, gastronomy and leisure companies. It is not only millennials who think so, because almost 70 percent of Generation X are also convinced that immersion and personal experiences will shape the events of the future. Two thirds of the baby boomers and 59 percent of Generation Z share this view.
Although millennials in particular already have experience with an experiential event (over 67 percent), they also appeal to other age groups. 65 percent of Generation Z had attended an experience event or show in the previous 12 months. This was also affirmed by 55 percent of Generation X respondents and almost half of the baby boomers. 72 percent of the millennials said that experiences make an event more interesting and exciting. This opinion was shared by 71 percent of Generation X, 65 percent of the baby boomers and 64 percent of Generation Z.
It is also interesting to note that significantly more than half of all European millennials would pay a higher admission price for adventure events. Also more than half of Generation X, 48 percent of the baby boomers and also almost 50 percent of Generation Z declared their willingness to do so. Companies therefore have a strong financial incentive to meet these expectations.
“New technologies are fundamentally changing the way companies address, entertain and communicate with their audience. Our study shows that there is a lot of potential for broadcasters to incorporate more experience-oriented elements into their offerings, because otherwise they run the risk of losing customers. This applies in particular to millennials, if they find more immersive experiences with other organisers,” says Jörn von Ahlen, Head of Marketing at Epson Deutschland GmbH.
Arlington Research conducted market studies in 26 countries with a total of 9,750 adults aged 16 to 65 years who had attended an event or show listed in a drop-down list in the previous 12 months. The following markets were included in the study: United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, Greece, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Israel, United Arab Emirates and Morocco. The studies are representative of adults aged 16 to 65 years in each of the countries studied.