Hello and welcome back to our latest blog series, in which we explore The Experience Index, new research developed in partnership with renowned behavioural scientist Patrick Fagan. The report is based on our proprietary MARVELS™ framework and a national survey of 2,005 UK adults who attended branded experiences in the past two years. It identifies five defining trends that we believe are reshaping the experiential landscape:
- Duality
- Culture Over Campaigns
- Blended Realities
- Earn Trust, Not Attention
- Turning Moments into Momentum
In today’s blog, the third in the series, we take a closer look at Blended Realities.
What is Blended Realities?
In 2025, audiences don’t live online or offline; they increasingly span both. For many people navigating the modern world, the boundary between the digital and the physical simply doesn’t exist anymore: it has dissolved completely. This cross-contextual phenomenon has created one of the more conflicted sets of statistics in the Experience Index.
For example, only 35% of respondents said they felt comfortable using AI or emerging technology in brand experiences, a figure that rises to 38% among men but only 33% among women. Unsurprisingly, these comfort levels peak among Gen Alpha and Z, but at the other end of the spectrum, Boomers sat significantly lower. Only a third (33%) enjoy interacting with technology, but that number climbs to 36% among 25–34s and 32% among 16–24s when asked if tech would make them more likely to attend an event.
The key message here is not that technology is good or bad; it’s that technology for technology’s sake no longer cuts through as it once did.
Generational insights
The data also shows clear distinctions between generations.
● Gen Z & Gen Alpha: These audiences have never drawn a hard line between online and offline. They move fluidly between platforms, expecting brands to do the same. They value interactivity, personalisation and experiences that reflect their digital-native lives. For them, hybrid means flow: moments that translate effortlessly from the real world to virtual and back again.
● Millennials (25–34): Millennials are the most open to emerging tech, with 36% saying it would make them more likely to attend a brand experience. They want digital integration that feels useful and creative, for example, AR tools that help them discover, learn or share something new.
● Gen X & Boomers: Older groups show lower comfort levels with tech but aren’t resistant to it. When digital tools are intuitive and clearly enhance the experience, they respond positively. For these audiences, emotional design is the differentiator – human warmth, sensory detail and clarity of purpose all matter more than spectacle.
Takeaways for Brands
There is plenty for brands to learn from this trend. To start, technology should enhance an experience, not overwhelm it. The most effective brand activations use tools like AR, AI and VR to deepen storytelling, personalise interaction and extend the journey rather than simply dominate it. Similarly, hybrid design works best when it feels seamless and natural, with tech integrated into the story rather than added on.
One way our research identified to achieve this is IRL-to-URL loops: moments when a physical action unlocks digital content, or when online engagement leads to something tangible in the real world. That said, the tech has to serve the story, or it becomes background noise. Real success comes from balancing innovation with intimacy, pairing the digital with the deeply human. While a piece of clever coding can create excitement, it’s the storytelling, sensory detail and human touch that turn it into emotion.
Meet Arq – From IRL to IVL: The New Experience Landscape
At We Are Collider, we are big believers in the idea that hybrid experiences aren’t defined by the technology they use, but by the human needs they meet in the moment. It’s one of the founding principles of Arq, our innovation lab, which is based on the idea of “converged creativity” — interconnected experiences that span physical, digital, and virtual realms.
Arq’s behavioural STAGES framework shows how these needs fall into five key dimensions:
- Self: Experiences that enable expression and personalisation.
- Transformative: Experiences that inspire or shift perception.
- Accessible: Design that feels seamless, intuitive and inclusive.
- Gamified: Playful, social formats that invite participation.
- Extraordinary: Moments that surprise, delight and bend reality.
To us, these are much more than design principles; they’re the building blocks of emotional connection, which is why hybrid experiences succeed only when they blend functionality with feeling.
Experiences we’re fans of
Modern brands are increasingly leaning into the “blend digital and physical” paradigm to craft immersive, multi-channel experiences, and EE’s Game Day 2024 activation exemplifies this brilliantly. Over 24 hours, EE transformed the UK into “the world’s biggest gaming arcade” by fusing in-store AR, outdoor-billboard QR gaming, TikTok effects and a custom island inside Fortnite. Iconic locations such as Brighton Pier and Wembley Stadium became playful portals where users could scan QR codes to activate endless-runner games or tilt their phone in a TikTok robot mission, while streamers hosted a live Fortnite island drop with fans competing for prize chests.
Meanwhile, Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with Yayoi Kusama re-frames blended realities in the luxury arena. The fashion house didn’t just reinterpret Kusama’s signature polka dots on bags and accessories, but also extended the collaboration into the public sphere by overlaying augmented-reality dots onto global landmarks using Snapchat’s Landmarker Lenses. Flagship stores and installations were drenched in colour and dot-driven signage, elevating the experience from product to spectacle. By merging high-art collaboration with immersive technology, LV created a sense of “money can’t buy” access to a shared moment that transcends the shop front and crash lands straight into the public imagination.
Want to design hybrid experiences that feel seamless, human and real? Speak to Anton Jerges to explore how The Experience Index and MARVELS™ can elevate your next activation: anton.jerges@wearecollider.com
