Immersive technology has historically meant placing the user into a seemingly real world scenario and innovations like Occulus Rift are taking this to new heights.

To date, the added value has been in creating worlds; the next step is using immersive technologies to seamlessly heighten real world experiences, enhancing audience engagement.

Audience photos and tweets are curated and played out at events now as standard, yet this is just the tip of the iceberg. 2014 saw audiences crowd-sourced to determine event content, the continued development of interactive shop windows, and iBeacon used not only to deliver exclusive access – as MasterCard did earlier this year at an event in Brooklyn – but as a device to deliver content.

Looking further forward, developments in conductive ink technologies could enable virtually anything to be touch interactive. Beck’s playable poster is just the start of this particular journey whilst the inevitable rise of wearable tech, despite the stuttering of Google Glass, will push augmented reality into the mainstream.

Amongst all this innovation the opportunity to maximise experiential marketing, from event sponsorship to retail sites, has never been more exciting. The challenge will continue to be the ability of companies to place technology at the heart of creative storytelling that informs and inspires; those that do will build a bond with their audience and drive their engagement.