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3 Lessons for Branded Digital Experiences from Virtual Burning Man

Posted On  September 21, 2020
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This year, for unsurprising reasons, the annual desert pilgrimage known as Burning Man went virtual. Back in April, it was announced that this journey was going online, giving organizers and devotees five months to create nine days’ worth of immersive content.

When I heard that the event was going online, I thought back to all of the hard work that brands pour into pop-up experiences (both digital and physical), and frankly I couldn’t see how it was going to happen. How many marketing war rooms and tech enablement meetings would need to happen every day just to map out 216 hours of content?

I have to caveat here: I am not a “Burner,” meaning I’ve yet to make my own pilgrimage to the playa. The voyage, the wandering, the expense, and the not-showering were all barriers for me. Still, as I met more and more Burners and listened to their experiences, I felt drawn in. What could encourage 80,000 people to overcome mighty obstacles to participate in this ritualized camping adventure ? And how would that transformative experience possibly be re-imagined for online this year… on a deadline?

I decided to dip my toe into the water this year. A digital experience seemed like a low-risk way to act as participant observer. While I knew going in that I would not be getting the “full experience,” I figured I was bound to see some interesting executions bridging the digital and physical worlds. While my own journey to the playa was fraught with technical difficulties, the Burner community achieved a LOT this year, presenting three important lessons for marketers and brand teams confronted with the same challenge: How do you bring a fundamentally in-person experience built on human energy and imagination into the digital world?

Lesson #1: Trust in your most engaged fans

Burning Man’s organizers did not try to lift this experience off the ground themselves – they relied heavily on their diverse community of artists, creators, technologists, and futurists. This is true in both the desert and online; individual teams create the experiences. It was not surprising to find out that this year, there would be eight separate universes for participants to explore.

The marketing takeaway from this is clear: give your most devoted fans a real opportunity to craft alongside your brand. Don’t just ask them to post pictures on Instagram. Give them control over the entire experience, or at least some entire aspects of the experience. Even if the resulting execution isn’t flawless, your core followers will make sure that it feels right, because they are just as invested in the brand as your own internal brand team (maybe even more so).

To grow and adapt, brands can’t belong to companies. They must belong to the users, to the fans, to the loyal customers. Burning Man doesn’t belong to the organizers; it belongs to the Burners. Let your true fans light the fire and lead the way!

Lesson #2: Connect to something greater

One thing that I consistently hear from Burners is that the playa is a vast expanse. That vastness is not physical. It’s emotional. It’s a feeling. This year, creators were able to simulate this vastness not only through large maps but also through various sensory inputs designed to make the virtual experience “feel” like the real thing. The din of not-so-distant conversation and the sound of very-distant cannon fire punctuated the sounds of the desert, just like in real life.

When brands design digital and physical experiences, they must find ways to connect to something greater than the brand itself, whether it’s a feeling, a movement, or a social cause. Don’t be the center of your own universe or your fans may slowly gravitate away from you when the next big thing that comes around.

Lesson #3: Use your existing content library, but don’t rely on it

Content libraries are a rich source of inspiration and collateral. Burning Man has no shortage of historic art exhibits from its 34-year history. The organizers could have attempted to create a museum to the past by dusting off old exhibits and tossing them into a gallery experience. That would have been an easy way to harvest the goodwill of years past. Instead, by incorporating the past into today, they created a sense of history and heritage without relying on the remnants of the past to power the present.

As brands, your libraries are an asset, but they are not your competitive advantage. Only by incorporating the past into a living, breathing present will your current digital experience maintain the pulsing life force of prior physical events.

Physical discovery in a digital world

I cannot say that after my experimentation with the Multiverse this year that I have a true sense for what Burning Man is and why people come back year after year to great expense and disruption of daily life. The digital experience wasn’t a true “substitute” for the real thing.

However, I felt connected to something outside of myself. I was inspired by the ingenuity of the devoted fans. But most importantly, I learned that sometimes things with lasting value are covered in dust and not polish.

 

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