How can a technical B2B experience feel more authentic?

A technical B2B experience feels more authentic when it connects the proposition to the people affected by it. Start with the audience's real context, then show the setting, challenge or outcome in a way that feels specific rather than polished into abstraction. Research and personas can help make the message more relevant and human.

Does an authentic experience need to be emotional?

An authentic experience needs a genuine feeling, but that feeling does not need to be dramatic. Curiosity, confidence, reassurance or the sensation of entering a new environment can all create emotional connection. Forced sentiment is more likely to make a story feel false than human.

Can VR make a B2B brand story feel more genuine?

VR can make a B2B brand story feel more genuine when it helps people experience a real setting or situation more directly. VR does not create authenticity on its own, so the narrative still needs to reflect the audience, the brand and the people involved. A headset cannot rescue a message that feels staged.

What makes a brand story feel fake?

A brand story feels fake when it is overly curated, emotionally forced or disconnected from the people it claims to represent. Genuine stories give real people room to describe their experiences in their own words. The brand's role is to shape the narrative clearly, not manufacture the emotion.

How do we make the experience feel authentic?

Authenticity begins with a real human point of view

Authentic immersive storytelling starts with the people experiencing it, not the technology delivering it. A VR experience, 360-degree video or virtual product demonstration needs to communicate something the audience can recognise as real: a challenge they face, a setting they understand or an outcome that matters to them.

That means getting close to the audience before shaping the story. Personas and audience research help make the message specific, relevant and human, especially when the subject is technical. Emotion matters here, but not as a shortcut to drama. A feeling can be curiosity, reassurance, pride or the sense of entering a place for the first time. The important part is that the feeling belongs naturally to the brand, the people involved and the experience being shared.

Sources: Designing an Authentic Emotional Connection, Telling authentic tales, Storytelling and imagination in the age of AI

Let immersion reveal something real

VR product visualisation feels more authentic when it gives an audience access to a real experience they could not otherwise easily enter. The value is not simply that an experience is immersive. The value is the clearer, more immediate sense it creates of a place, process or human outcome.

A 360-degree VR experience can work well when the setting itself carries meaning. For a technical B2B proposition, that might mean helping someone understand what it feels like to enter an environment, rather than surrounding them with claims about it. Keep the story focused enough for people to follow, and avoid adding emotion that the subject cannot honestly support. Audiences can spot an overly curated narrative, particularly when a brand is trying too hard to appear relatable. Straight-talking detail, real voices and a message that fits the audience will travel further than novelty.

Sources: Designing an Authentic Emotional Connection, Telling authentic tales

We make immersive experiences feel real by starting with the human story

We believe an immersive experience should reveal a truth about the people, place or proposition behind it. Technology can make a story more immediate, but it cannot make a generic message feel genuine. That is why we begin with the audience, the human impact and the feeling worth bringing to life.

We have applied that thinking to the IBM Garage project, creating a 360-degree VR experience designed to help people feel what it was like to enter the IBM Garage. The work was technical and B2B, but the experience still had an emotional role: it conveyed the sensation of being there. We also use audience research and personas to make the story relevant, rather than relying on immersion as a substitute for insight.

Sources: Designing an Authentic Emotional Connection