We're Not Distributing Content Anymore, We're Architecting Experiences

What a week. October's been exciting, and I'm feeling more traction around immersive and emerging technologies than ever before.

For the past 12-18 months, it felt like everyone was in flux, searching for their footing. But we're finally getting somewhere. The old playbook? It's gone. And honestly, I'm not sad about it.

I had a fascinating conversation yesterday about vertical content, something new to me. The funny part? I'd been talking about the shift in content consumption two weeks earlier without even realizing we were discussing the same thing. It just had a different name.

Call me an engagement expert if you need a label. Immersive engagement expert works too. But here's the thing, engagement transcends technology. It's strategy. It's design. It's understanding people. Labels never quite capture that. What matters is this: creating emotional connections with people, whether they're visitors, employees, customers, audiences. That's where I live.

Take a museum exhibition. The old approach: you walk through in sequence, same route, same experience for everyone. The new approach? Visitors choose their journey. Want the deep-dive historical narrative? Follow that thread. Prefer bite-sized facts as you move through? That's available. Want to experience a moment in time through AR, standing where someone stood 200 years ago? Design for that too. Same content, same story, infinite ways to engage with it. That's engagement strategy married to technology and design.

The vertical content topic made me think about so much more. Once you understand user behavior and technology, you realize the implications are massive.

Vertical content, at its core, is about format flexibility. It's content designed to work in portrait orientation, typically mobile-first. But it's more than just rotating the phone. It's a philosophy. It acknowledges that how people consume content has fundamentally changed. We're not passive anymore. We're scrolling, choosing, filtering, jumping in and out. Vertical content was the first real signal that we need to design with that behavior, not against it.

Think about how we've traditionally approached content. Let's call it the ABC approach. You have an IP, say a movie, and you apply the same formula: sequential, single-format, with maybe an alternative approach tacked on as an afterthought rather than strategy.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Some companies already do that." Sure. Netflix has clips. YouTube has shorts. But there's a difference between scattering formats across platforms and strategically designing the story itself to work across all of them. Most companies are still treating alternative formats as distribution problems, not creative ones. They make the movie, then ask, "How do we get this on TikTok?" Instead of asking, "How do we design this story so it lives everywhere?"

Here's what I mean: think of the movie as an asset, the way you'd think about a 3D asset that can be used in a thousand different ways. The asset is the core. How you use it? That's something else entirely. We need to change our perspective and build flexibility into the foundation, not bolt it on afterward.

But what about the artist's vision? The producer's intent? I get it. I respect it. Now it's time to extend that vision. Create narratives and stories rich enough that people can jump in at different points. You're a Star Wars superfan? Great, dive into every detail, every layer, explore the lore. You just love sci-fi and want a great time? Jump straight to the movie. You want to experience the story through 15-second clips you flip through? That's valid too. The core story doesn't change. The emotional beats remain. But the access points multiply.

And here's the thing, this isn't diluting the vision. It's amplifying it. Creatives should be excited about this. It opens the door to richer, deeper stories. To universes that feel more alive because they adapt to how people want to experience them. A director's vision doesn't get weaker when more people can access it in ways that work for them. It gets stronger. More people watch. More people engage. More people become invested.

From a business perspective, this makes sense too. Engagement doesn't just mean time spent, it means deeper investment, repeat visits, community building. When you design for flexibility, you're not cannibalizing views. You're creating multiple on-ramps to the same destination. The person who watches 15-second clips might become the person who eventually does the deep dive. The commuter who catches snippets might become a devoted fan.

The point is: we shouldn't dictate how people engage. We should follow their lead.

This requires a fundamentally different approach, one that weaves the narrative, allows flexibility, and adapts to individual preferences. Maybe you want a horror experience where an AR character chases you down your actual street because you chose to be part of that story. Or maybe you want a linear experience with no distractions. Both should exist.

The bottom line: we need a new creative framework. For entertainment. For brands. For everyone.

Yes, it requires new technologies. Yes, it requires rethinking how stories are structured and distributed. Yes, it might feel overwhelming. But we can't keep doing what we've done for the last 10-15 years. It simply doesn't work anymore.

We've been holding back. Time to let go.

Let's make experiences fun again.

Related: how immersive ecommerce lets buyers understand a complex product online before the first sales call.