“The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.” ~ Mary Catherine Bateson
“I feel that Augmented Reality is perhaps the ultimate computer.” ~ Satya Nadella
ACT II, Chapter III
NOW that we have considered the spatiality of products and their narratives, and now that we have also looked more closely at some of the white spaces surrounding the product world from launch failures to returns and beyond, it’s time to look at how you may begin to build your own product storyworld in space, and to share some of my own insights. I have been involved with holography for decades, long before the recent fusion of Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence which promises to transform performance. Product packaging, display and trade fair holography were three zones very much in the center of spatial evolution. But as we’ve already noted, the spatial realm covers the entire life cycle from design and production to distribution, usage and recycling. And holography offers multiple potentials across the three main arenas where products are to be found – retail, home and industry. This is about far more than adding that shiny product to your digital cart – although this is also a compelling motive to evolve and enrich your spatial world.
In the twenty-first century, products are becoming complete experiences, and not simply because services are ever more vital to their success or because products are being ever more digitized. Essentially, what is happening is that product information is superseding the actual object itself. Data and not objects are where the value is migrating to. So not only is holography ideal for experiencing a product in the round – the emerging datascape of spatial information will meld with product holograms to offer incomparable advantages from operation and repair to environmental advisory and usage. Long after the packaging has been stowed or disposed of, holograms will provide the operational package around which products will perform. And increasingly, products themselves will inform us of the best ways to utilize and leverage them – a far broader and deeper value proposition than mere maintenance alerts. The augmented layer around products will become much more than the selling platform – it will form the skills base itself we need to get the most out of our products.
Let’s start with design – a creative human activity which can be turbocharged through spatial incarnations of objects. Yes, they save on the expense and risk of prototyping, but they also enable global collaboration to take place seamlessly. The entire design process can be joined up and rolled out internationally to create a real-time co-creative space where ideas are manifest seamlessly and confusion is minimized. In software terms this is called digital twinning in manufacturing, but holograms represent a huge advance on screen programs, whereby the entire quiddity of new products can be experienced and deployed already in the real world.
Holograms are currently deployed for distinct purposes in the production phase, chiefly for fault testing and security. But just imagine what plant performances can achieve when installations and equipment come complete with their spatial data. In a world where industrial skills are at a premium and machinery is increasingly complex, this simplifies everything. Synchronizing product development and manufacturing execution is the game plan here, and the spatial realm of things will augment the real with ideas, insights and resources. Imagine what will happen when product engagement in the market intensifies through spatial interfaces and this direct experiential feedback can be filtered back to engineering and design. Value chains which become virtuous cycles. And all of this long before we even consider the direct benefits for users and shoppers in the real world.
Sustainability is everything in modern products, which means they must become more intelligent, more resilient and more efficient in both makeup and energy consumption. The entire equation of how things are dreamt up, designed, manufactured, stored, distributed, sold and used is at stake. The spatial realm is your friend here, offering you multiple new product opportunities. In the home, product data can become more accessible and tangible than ever, helping to optimize consumption and extend usable lifetimes. And this is not to mention the potential of holographic products to actually replace whole categories of physical objects we do not necessarily require in analogue form. Imagine spatial tools, musical instruments, décor and appliances that simply disappear into the realm when they are unneeded. A world which is not being filled more and more with clutter and waste but deployed intelligently dependent on useful purpose.
Point of Sale is where holograms are currently being deployed most of all, starting with premium goods and high-end luxury. Spatial habitats turn retail space into an entertainment venue, a mini-theater of the senses where objects entertain us. These habitats lend a new reason for store spaces to exist, rivalling and overtaking the online world in empathy, suspense and surprise. The ceiling, the walls, the floor, every surface becomes a narrative opportunity for telling the product story.
Once upon a time telephones were used to actually make calls. That was before the telephone in our pocket became a launchpad for entering the entire digital world. Well now, the self-same smartphone will become a launchpad for discovering and exploring the spatial realm – except this time it will intensify our relationship with the real world rather than thinning it out. Smartphones and headsets are themselves products of a seminal kind, and they form the entry points for the first generation of holographic installations. These habitats start off by being single instances – holographic apparel or furniture which we try out for style and suitability. When the clunky headsets we have already started to deploy get replaced by slinky glasses – even allowing for our prescription lenses – we will start to integrate the whole deal.
Electronic commerce is now the cutting edge of global retail, no matter what the scale or location of the physical stores. Now electronic is about to go holographic – and it will redraw the lines of competition and differentiation. As soon as global platforms such as Prime adopt 3D modeling as the gateway to product holograms – and they have already begun the process – the non-spatialized product world will fade into the background. Dwell time and purchase decisioning will become ever more critical KPIs as holograms are utilized to first of all earn that human attention and then – based on real-time sentiment analysis – anticipate the consumer’s next move.
The product’s hologram will, in fact, become the first line of engagement and how that engagement plays out will be all. Products will not just appear in space but gradually start to narrate themselves also. The first narrative unit may, for example, dramatize the product demo itself, or the review. The next narrative segment may anticipate client misgivings, for example a holographic episode on delivery or warranty. The customer’s journey is far from a trip in the country, it more resembles a distracted odyssey with constant interruptions and pitfalls – navigating between the Scylla of boredom and the Charybdis of competing product. Brands straight out of the blocks with holographic content will have a powerful and decisive head start.
If you are considering a spatial product realm, you may well be a brand manufacturer, a retailer or an advertiser – each in your own way competing for human attention in strategic ways. The real-world Walmarts and department stores will be close behind the Primes of this new universe, and everyone will strive for a signature style and stand-out performance. Players who master episodic content will win over the repeat customer, and in fact products will lead to serialized stories. Right now holographic products are a novelty – when they go mainline, narrative will take over – not just as an ordering principle but as a market differentiator. Remember what that classical word narrative actually means – to know something. And narrative holography is an ideal way to get to know products in all their perspectives from design to repurposing.
As a brand manufacturer you will perhaps use packaging as the launch point for holographic habitats, reaching out in the real world with original content that earns its own attention. The captive audience is a thing of the past – certainly of the pre-smartphone era. Now you must captivate us, willingly. What story has your product been telling us before – and how can you innovate that narrative now in holographic space?
As a real-world retailer who has been monetizing shelving and placement, you will pretty soon realize that the entire spatial dimension has become a new marketplace – and adapt accordingly. But customers will have more control than ever and will not respond well to Truman Show artifice or sham. Holographic content which dramatizes the environmental impact of products and their sustainable supply chain will be top attention earners – especially among the savvier young. Every product has in fact been a story in essence to date – there just wasn’t room on the label or the package to share it. In the spatial realm, however, there is nothing but possibility.
Products also get their chance to anthropomorphize – an avatar or brand creature can be the most intuitive guide. This is where advice meets entertainment, and where real-world spaces start reclaiming more attention from digital screenscapes. Research that happens online beforehand – and often decisively influences purchase outcomes – can now start when window-shopping or casually passing by. The realm is yours to narrate but remember when every product gets its hologram it’s down to narrative smarts to differentiate.
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A few thoughts from Author & Holographer, Paul Duffy
I think this image helps present a quick glimpse into the near future. While i'm not certain what the final form of light-weight eyewear will take, it's a good bet it will enable an experience such as this. As the two shoppers browser together, its plausible to consider this scenario as a jumping-off point to all sorts of outcomes.
Not the least is the conversion of a duo of shoppers to buyers - talk about doubling your conversion rates! :-)
Commerce in the Spatial Realm will definitely become a "thing" and with the enablement of holographic habitats and narrative storylines the concept of the "customer journey" is soon to take on an entirely new meaning.
~ Paul Duffy, June 2023.