A virtual reality experience is “an in situ promotional product”. With these words, Vincent Armitano Grivel describes the Lady Sapiens-inspired immersive installation deployed at the Saint Césaire Paleosite. A strategy that has paid off for this venue in the Charente-Maritime region, which in 2022 exceeded its usual annual average of 43,000 visitors by July.

There are a number of online and physical ways of promoting VR experiences. These approaches can be implemented by the venue to communicate with its regular audiences (website, social networks, events), with new target audiences by mobilizing partners, or via advertising campaigns and press relations (to address a wider audience). These are just some of the ways to optimize the promotion and communication of VR experiences.

1. Providing information and directing regular visitors of a cultural venue towards a VR experience (mobilizing the venue’s communication channels)

To communicate with a cultural venue’s regular or traditional audiences, a range of communication tools can be used on site (by reception staff, using print media, etc.) or online (via e-mail campaigns, the venue’s website or social networks).

Suggestion 1 – Communicate on the establishment’s website or on a dedicated website.

As the gateway to a cultural venue, its website can showcase a range of practical information, as well as the offers available within the establishment. A VR experience can be highlighted on the home page or in a dedicated (and visible) tab with practical information, online ticketing, visuals and a teaser video. This is the case with Chambord 360°, a VR experience presented and promoted by the Château on the home page of its website. A dedicated page describes practical information, the project’s history and the conditions of use for VR headsets, illustrated by two videos and a set of photographs with access to the ticket office.

Suggestion 2 – Create a teaser and/or making-of video of the experience

In a similar vein to the Château de Chambord, the Bibliothèque Humaniste de Sélestat has released a 1m38 video advertising its virtual reality experience “Odyssée, un voyage en hyper réalité – La bibliothèque dont vous êtes le héros”. The video is accessible from the library’s home page.

For larger-scale VR experiences, a dedicated website may be an option. This choice is particularly effective for touring virtual reality exhibitions (e.g. Le Bal de Paris, Compagnie Gilles Jobin’s VR_I, or L’Infini’s U.S. tour). Press reviews, photo galleries, a booking calendar to follow the tour, and information are aimed at both visitors and professionals (journalists, directors of cultural establishments likely to host the experience, etc.).

Suggestion 3 – Conduct e-mailing campaigns.

Alongside a venue’s website or VR experience, a range of tools can be used to carry out communication campaigns: competitions, newsletters, targeted e-mailings, etc. This is what production and exhibition company Amaclio offers, for instance, following online booking of one of its shows. The following month, an email is sent with all the offers provided by the organizer of Nuit aux Invalides or Éternelle Notre-Dame. A range of promotions and event information are also highlighted to maximize the promotional effectiveness of the e-mail campaign. According to a Museum Booster study on digital practices in museums, 64% of the 200 establishments surveyed use data from websites, social networks (46%), content management systems (37%) and online surveys (36%) for their marketing strategy. This approach can help them target advertising to their own visitors.

Suggestion 4 – Make the most of user feedback on social networks.

To keep social networks lively, in addition to promotional content about the VR work, visitor feedback can be highlighted. This is what Ideal (a digital art center in Barcelona) does on Instagram. On Facebook, the Virtual Room in Orléans broadcasts interviews with visitors. The DreamAway room network also features user reactions.

Another example: the Eternelle Notre-Dame teams conducted 25 interviews with visitors at the end of the expedition, and installed a large banner featuring a stained-glass window in the cathedral, in front of which many Internet users took photos to share directly on social networks.

Suggestion 5 – Welcome and guide visitors to the immersive experience.

On site, reception areas and ticket offices are key points for providing information on the VR experience available and guiding visitors towards it. This is, for instance, the approach adopted by MuséoParc d’Alésia in 2021 to offset the visitor deficit at the archaeological remains of the ancient Gallic town located 3 kilometers from the museum (-50% of visitors compared to the museum). After developing a serious game using augmented reality tablets to enhance the appeal of the site, the museum’s reception staff now systematically offer this additional option to visitors purchasing a ticket for the museum, to encourage them to discover the grounds. At the Crypte archéologique de l’Île de la Cité, reception staff offer and present the Notre-Dame virtual reality experience (VR experience by Ubisoft), which can also be viewed from the reception desk.

Suggestion 6 – Showcase a range of print materials presenting the VR / AR experience.

As soon as visitors arrive at a cultural venue, a range of media (brochures, flyers, posters, leaflets, etc.) can be made available to encourage them to discover and book a VR / AR experience. For example, the Musée de la Guerre 1870, in the Eure-et-Loir region of France, is promoting its augmented reality offer in the reception area (flyers) and entrance hall (kakemonos/posters), recreating the fights, the battlefield and the village of Loigny. This strategy mobilizes reception staff to answer visitors’ questions and, where appropriate, distribute the material needed to visit the battlefield. The distribution of information material can also be envisaged at other sites to give greater visibility to VR experiences. This was the case, for example, for the Bourdelle and Insurrection 1944 experiences at two Paris Musées sites.

These are just a few of the ways in which a venue’s visitors can be encouraged to discover an immersive experience offered when purchasing a ticket online or on site. Partnerships can also be set up to pool communities and spread a communication campaign more widely.

2. Seek out new audiences by mobilizing partners and intermediaries likely to be interested in a VR experience 

A range of partners can be rallied to promote an immersive cultural experience to their audiences. Various levers can be used to involve them: exchanging visibility, organizing events, offering price incentives, and so on. These are all tools that can be used to raise the profile of an experience with new audiences.

Which partners to involve?

A wide range of different parties can be involved in a cultural venue’s communication activities. These can include educational partners (schools, universities), associations, tourism professionals (tourist offices, accommodation providers, restaurateurs, etc.), local businesses, local authorities, other cultural institutions and so on. Beyond these partners, influencers can also be the focus of targeted actions. This was the case, for example, with the 2019 partnership between the Musée de l’ordre de la Libération and history youtuber Nota Bene (308,000 views). An inspiring example that can be replicated for immersive experiences.

How to get them involved?

Just like press kits for the press, communication kits can be designed and given to partners to help them frame their physical (brochures, flyers, posters, etc.) and online communication (vocabulary, visuals, publication templates for social networks). With this in mind, a communication kit was sent to the Citadelle Souterraine de Verdun’s institutional partners for the launch of a permanent tour in augmented reality: Tourisme Grand Verdun, Département de la Meuse, Grand Verdun Agglomération, Région Grand Est, Caisse des dépôts…. Each of their websites contains a similar copy-and-paste description (between 200 and 300 words), with visuals, practical information and a link to the Verdun site.

In addition to the creation of communication kits, invitations to events can also be considered. In this way, representatives from the governing bodies, local authorities or the region can be invited to test an immersive experience on site. “Our guests were captivated by the technological prowess of virtual reality, a type of device they had never tested before,” confided Vincent Armitano Grivel, director of the Saint Césaire Paleosite, after inviting the Préfet and Sous-Préfète of Charente Maritime to test the Lady Sapiens VR experience.

Autant de bonnes pratiques pertinentes mais qui peuvent être complétées par l’usage d’outils publicitaires ou le lancement d’une campagne de relations presse afin d’élargir les publics d’une expérience immersive.  

3. Reach a wider audience through advertising campaigns and press relations

A number of communication tools can be used to promote an immersive experience to new audiences:

• Purchase sponsored links: Search engine optimization (SEO) enables us to improve the positioning and visibility of the immersive experience on the web via sponsored links.

• Purchase advertising space on physical platforms (billboards), in the media (advertising inserts on a page, radio or television), or online (banners on a website, sponsored posts on social networks).

• Develop online retargeting strategies: target audiences based on their behavior (web searches for an immersive experience, purchase of tickets for a previous experience, etc.).

• Street-facing advertising on the facades of a location (as was the case at the Arab World Institute for the Horizon of Khufu).

• Engagement with the press and media: creating a press kit can be a prerequisite. This was the case, for example, with the On the Morning You Wake (to the End of the World) experience released in 2022 (see this extensive press kit).

Promoting an immersive experience requires preparing a marketing campaign that can be adjusted according to the format of the experience (complementary setup? standalone setup?) and the objectives of the establishment. For regular visitors, both online and physical tools are used to inform and guide those already familiar with the location. Therefore, in order to expand its audience and reach targeted demographics (locals, technology enthusiasts, young audiences, etc.), partnering with entities responsible for promoting the immersive experience to their audience can be implemented with varying degrees of partnership (communication kit, influencers, etc.). Finally, various online and physical advertising tools can complement these marketing strategies to reach a wider general audience.

Antoine ROLAND and Baudouin DUCHANGE