AN AUDIENCE-LED APPROACH TO PERFORMANCE 

Having shaped, designed and delivered solutions across sectors and around the globe it’s always been a core focus when designing experiences: to meet [or even anticipate] the needs of the audience. An audience-led strategy indicates that today, audience needs have evolved and so to must the ways we design to create value.

“Projecting to hit $8 trillion by 2030, The experience Economy is the main event, not the opening act” – Max Lenderman

THE POWER OF INTEGRATED EXPERIENCE DESIGN 

For years, brands have debated IRL vs URL experiences. Separate and isolated - the physical versus the digital. The live versus online. Yet audiences have already moved on effortlessly, seamlessly. Today’s audiences don’t switch between worlds - they actively and naturally live in both at the same time.

What we see when modern audiences interact with brand environments:

• They discover online
• They experience in real life
• They share digitally
• They seek to re-engage physically

REDEFINING BRAND EXPERIENCE

The digital-physical duality isn’t disappearing and in someways for audiences, it’s becoming more relevant. And that shift fundamentally changes how we should think about brand experience design.

The most effective brand experiences are no longer defined by where they happen, but by how seamlessly they connect rather than where they happen:

• Live Moments: a moment that doesn’t extend beyond the room often misses scale, memory, and legacy.
• Digital Experiences: without physical relevance, perhaps digital experiences lack emotional weight.
• Intentionality: when digital layers are applied without purpose, they distract; when applied with intent, they deepen presence and extend memory.

DEVELOPING AN EXPERIENTIAL STRATEGY FOR THE FUTURE

The opportunity sits at the intersection where physical presence creates meaning and digital layers extend, personalise and sustain. This duality and evolution places new demands on experience design leaders.

“In a world of infinite digital content, perhaps the most valuable asset is the one thing that cannot be digitised. Presence. Memory. Feeling. Shared experience...”.

It’s no longer enough to “add social” or “capture content”. Experiences must be designed as connected eco-systems from the outset. To drive long-term brand value that is genuine use, IRL and URL must work together to drive:

• Attention and connection.
• Participation and understanding.
• Data and valued metrics.

THE STRATEGIC SHIFT FOR BRAND LEADERS

For brand leaders, what we see is a shift in the question from “What’s the activation?” to “How does this experience live before, during and after the moment?.”

• Before: design for how audiences discover, anticipate and opt-in.
• During: design for how presence is enhanced, encouraged and not distracted by digital touchpoints.
• After: design for how memory, advocacy and behaviour are extended at scale.

Significantly, IRL / URL duality isn’t about technology for technology’s sake. The brand leaders getting it right start with human behaviour – designing for emotion, relevance, understanding and awe – then apply digital layers to add genuine value.

The result is the design of powerful experiences that feel intuitive, memorable and not engineered.

“In a world where audiences live both online and offline seamlessly the future of brand experience isn’t physical or digital. It’s the ability to design meaning that moves with people – before, during and long after the moment.”  Adam Mortimer.

Understanding this evolution is key because audience attention is fragmented, loyalty is earned in moments, and brand value is built through consistency across every touchpoint.

To stay relevant in a landscape where audiences naturally inhabit physical and digital spaces at once, brands must move beyond isolated activations and instead focus on building connected ecosystems. Success in modern brand experience design is found at the intersection of digital-physical duality, where IRL creates connection and belief while URL creates reach and legacy.

Together, they create impact.

By adopting an audience-led strategy that seamlessly bridges the gap between IRL vs URL, brand leaders can ensure their experiential strategy provides synergy, continuity, and genuine brand value long after the moment has passed.