How (and why) user emotions in virtual experiences lead to greater impact
In this article, Alena Kostyk, Associate Professor at EDHEC, draws on a number of recent research projects and articles, including her own, to analyse the links between virtual reality, emotions and communication.
Marketers often seek to create certain perceptions and emotions among their target audiences. For example, destination brands might focus on positive emotions, so that the overall impressions of the destination are positive and drive future visits. Similarly, non-profit organizations might create marketing campaigns that elicit emotions such as fear or anger to drive charitable donations. In doing so, communication campaigns increasingly turn to powerful new technologies such as virtual reality (VR) – an immersive technology that takes users to a new time and space. But what makes emotions experienced in VR particularly powerful?
The unique potential of virtual reality
VR is uniquely suitable for designing powerful communication campaigns, as it allows a first person perspective, and places the viewer at the centre of a narrative that is designed by marketers with a specific objective in mind (1).
For instance, a non-profit animal welfare organization UAnimals used VR at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 to demonstrate the devastating effects of the war in Ukraine on local ecosystems.
As another example, in one of my recent projects I worked with a famous Scottish heritage site, St. Giles’ cathedral, on creating and testing their VR experience. My team found that for its users, VR can feel very “real” and truly transport them to a new place (a phenomenon dubbed ‘telepresence’ in the literature (2)).
This feeling of being immersed in a virtual world – a true hallmark of VR – impacts consumers strongly. In another paper, my team found that marketers can use various sensory elements to further this sense of immersion. For instance, we discovered that adding scents to a VR experience can often boost the sense of immersion and make it more impactful (3).
User emotions and memories in VR
So how is VR experienced by its users? We find that virtual experiences are more akin to direct ones (e.g., a real-life visit to a heritage site), unlike other forms of marketing communications.
In my ongoing new project, we study VR in the context of animal conservation appeals, with the goal of increasing charitable donations from the viewers. We find that consumers immersed in VR have a wide range of positive and negative feelings, and that marketers need to balance these emotions just right to produce the desired effect (4).
For example, we tested the effects of the distance from the animal in VR. We found that being “closer” to the animal in VR, paired with the emotion of fear, was most effective in increasing charitable donation intentions to protect these animal species.
Overall, emotions experienced in VR can have a lasting effect on viewers, including their future attitudes and behaviors. This is because VR experiences are remembered as autobiographical events, as we found in another recently published paper (5).
VR experiences form memories of two kinds: semantic ones (i.e., general knowledge of the brand, destination, etc.), and episodic ones (i.e., personal account and sequence of events). Users who describe VR use language such as "I visited this place" rather than "I saw a video of this place”. Such “first-hand” experiences will always be more effective than other, indirect forms of marketing, e.g. seeing a video ad on YouTube or TikTok.
Proceed with caution
Yet, these characteristics of VR are not a ‘silver bullet’. While VR holds a lot of promise for marketing communications, managers need to fine-tune specific VR elements and ensure that they are spending their budgets on the features that are likely to affect their audiences most.
Importantly, it needs to be clear from the onset what VR marketing aims to achieve (6). All too often marketing efforts are devoted to vanity projects that are implemented for their gimmicky nature and are less impactful as a result.
Moreover, it is critical that a VR marketing initiative is rooted in a solid understanding of the brand’s target audience, their relationship with the technology, and readiness for innovation.
Accessibility considerations should play an important role in designing the VR experience and selecting appropriate software and hardware solutions capable of engaging target audiences of the brand (1).
With this in mind, the future of VR marketing seems bright and open for creative innovation.
References
(1) The Reality of Virtuality - Harness the Power of Virtual Reality to Connect with Consumers (2023). Kirsten Cowan , Seth Ketron and Alena Kostyk - https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110980561
(2) Virtual Reality Marketing: What Does It Mean to Have a 3D Experience? Alena Kostyk, Jie Sheng, Andrew Murchie, Stephen Preston. Journal of Advertising Research Sep 2024, 64 (3) 301-318 - https://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/64/3/301
(3) Can you smell the (virtual) roses? The influence of olfactory cues in virtual reality on immersion and positive brand responses. Kirsten Cowan, Seth Ketron, Alena Kostyk, Kirk Kristofferson, Journal of Retailing, Volume 99, Issue 3, 2023, Pages 385-399 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2023.07.004
(4) Charitable Branding Using Virtual Reality Narratives. Cowan, Kirsten; Dessart, Laurence; Kostyk, Alena. 2024. Abstract from Global Branding Conference, Edinburgh, United Kingdom - https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/charitable-branding-using-virtual-reality-narratives
(5) Memories of tourism brands in virtual reality. Alena Kostyk, Kirsten Cowan, Laurence Dessart, Michaël Schyns. Annals of Tourism Research, Volume 109, 2024, 103824 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2024.103824.
(6) VR in customer-centered marketing: Purpose-driven design. Alena Kostyk, Jie Sheng, Business Horizons, Volume 66, Issue 2, 2023, Pages 225-236 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2022.06.005
