Why Brand Experiences Fail: Introducing ImmersionLive

One trillion dollars.  Branded events, attractions and participatory entertainment generated $1 trillion USD worldwide in 2025. While many are consistently good, think American Girl stores, The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Bros studios in the UK, and IKEA's sleepover in store, there are also many spectacular fails.  A recent failure was the 2026 Barbie Dream Fest in Fort Lauderdale that charged $72-$450 for tickets for a mostly empty convention hall, poor design, and few activities.  The Mattel licensee, Mischief Management, had to issue refunds to nearly every attendee.  Equally bad was the 2024 Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience that was hyped in marketing but spectacularly failed to deliver value to families. 

While the crash and burn examples are both hilarious and sad, most branded event fall somewhere in the middle.  They are so-so for guests, perhaps earn a bit of revenue, but don't generate a "wow" that drives up customer lifetime value.  As we have discussed before, it is emotions that inspire purchase decisions, the desire to repeat the experience, and are the impetus for social sharing, so the "wow" is absolutely necessary. 

Well, you say, that's so easy—just ask people what they liked at your event.  If "liking" predicted outcomes, then every event would be a winner, every movie would sell a billion dollars in tickets and every novel would be a best-seller.  But no, people cannot accurately report their unconscious emotional responses.  And, they certainly cannot do this every minute while they are in your event. 

Another approach is to follow the money.  If they buy, it must have been great, right?  Purchases are a lagging indicator and, while objective, do not reveal why someone made a purchase.  Precisely what part of an experience drove the purchase decision?  And, what about those who did not purchase?  What part of the experience was so underwhelming that these folks attended but left without any goodies?

This is where Immersion comes in.  Immersion—the brain's "wow meter." And, it just got much easier to measure it. 

Introducing ImmersionLive. 

ImmersionLive is a self-contained shippable kit that includes wearable sensors to obtain neural data, a simple and fast check-in and check-out portal that all event staff can use to distribute wearables, and rapid batch processing that provides nearly instantaneous insights. Immersion's patented AI technology turns brain data into actionable insights everyone can understand and act on. And, to be sure your event rocks (and make the CFO happy), ImmersionLive uses brain data to calculate the return on experience (ROX) every time you measure. 

The most important events we experience are occur in real life.  There has never been a more accurate measurement of the ROX for IRL experiences than ImmersionLive.  Optimizing branded experiences, conferences, training, and entertainment has never been easier. 

Don't repeat the utter failures of the Willy Wonka Experience or Barbie Dream Fest. Understand exactly what creates the emotion that drives customer lifetime value without using useless surveys.  Measure brain activity directly with a kit and an iPad and you'll learn everything about your event you always wanted to know. 

Schedule a demo today!