Gucci AVP
Gucci’s Apple Vision Pro Experience Provides a Glimpse of the Future of Immersive Storytelling and Commerce
One of the primary things people say when they try Apple Vision Pro (AVP) for the first time is “I’ve seen the future.“
Next-generation immersive e-commerce is a highly requested topic these days among my clients, especially with the launch of AVP. I help my clients to understand, prepare for, and prototype how customers will shop and experience products and services in these new augmented and virtual worlds.
With their newly released interactive documentary on AVP (launched today April 3), Gucci offers a glimpse of what the future of brand storytelling and immersive commerce looks like in Spatial Computing.
Gucci gave me an exclusive preview last week of their new app and interactive documentary designed specifically for AVP. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Micael Barilaro, Gucci VP Brand Innovation Ventures, to discuss Gucci’s AVP experience. Here’s my unbiased review.
Gucci isn’t the first brand on AVP; there were a handful of brands with immersive shopping experiences at launch, which, for me, unfortunately fell flat and didn’t utilize the unique capabilities of AVP and Spatial Computing. Gucci’s app is leading the charge, setting a fresh example of what’s possible and I expect other brands to follow suit.
Gucci has always been a leader and innovative brand experimenting with new technologies. In fact, I’d been waiting for Gucci’s entrance into Spatial Computing on AVP, and it didn’t disappoint. This is the brand storytelling approach I’d been anticipating!
In a previous article, I shared how I work with brands to create new sensorially rich and immersive story spaces that captivate, inspire, and inform beyond traditional media. Boston Consulting Group released a report last year stating, “The #1 reason for the New Luxury consumer to follow a brand is to live in the universe they have created.” I advise my clients on how to harness these new story worlds to invite customers to live and feel the brand in ways not otherwise possible in a deeply engaging and memorable way. And this is what Gucci has beautifully given us a taste of in Spatial Computing.
Gucci’s AVP app features an immersive adaptation of the documentary, “‘Who is Sabato De Sarno? A Gucci Story,” the new film that presents a unique perspective on the moments that shaped the Gucci Ancora show. I had previously enjoyed the documentary in its original form on MUBI; the AVP version extends the story — and brand — in new ways.
Luxury is a feeling and Spatial Computing provides the perfect canvas to welcome customers into new sensory environments to experience those emotions with layered storytelling, which Gucci thoughtfully executes on AVP.
“By prioritizing curated experiences over conventional e-commerce paradigms, we are trying to redefine the boundaries of storytelling and brand interaction,” explained Barilaro.
In our discussion, Barilaro shared the importance of a non-intrusive approach in the experience: moments where the user is invited to explore 3D elements. The video pauses, and if you want to, you can delve deeper into the brand by exploring realistic 3D models such as the Gucci Horsebit platform loafer and Gucci Bamboo 1947 handbag in high fidelity, which you can zoom into incredible detail on. But there is no ‘click to buy’ option: the focus here is on the beauty and artistry of Gucci Ancora. (I can tell you that I did go immediately to the Gucci website after the experience to find the Gucci Signoria Rossa Ancora Slingback Pump!)
Barilaro highlighted the thoughtfully curated moments and balance throughout the AVP experience, “It had to be the right amount of interaction, where it felt natural.”
Brera Immersive Landscape Virtual Environment in Apple Vision Pro, Gucci App. Screen capture by Helen Papagiannis.
Brera Immersive Landscape Virtual Environment in Apple Vision Pro, Gucci App. Screen capture by Helen Papagiannis.
We talked about feeling a lot, too, and how AVP could translate some of the central aspects of Gucci Ancora, like Brera, a special ancient neighbourhood in the heart of Milan. De Sarno’s debut collection for Gucci at Milan Fashion Week was originally set to take place in the streets of Brera starting at the famous Accademia di Brera (Academy of Fine Arts), however the weather had other plans and the show had to be moved indoors to Gucci’s headquarters. For Barilaro there were two key things to emphasize and evoke through storytelling here: the feeling of Brera itself, shared through an immersive landscape in AVP, and how to translate the emotion of the rain, “Imagine it’s going to start raining in the device.” Oh, and it did: my living room went dark and the rain poured heavily for a long time. You felt the intensity of the rain and the weight of the emotion to move the catwalk indoors. It was mesmerizing and magical to look around my room and watch the rain.
Magic is something else we chatted about (a topic we recently discussed on RealityPl.us Episode 3 with my co-host Avi Bar-Zeev who worked at Apple on Vision Pro) and the need to take risks and experiment with new technologies. This is one of the things I admire about Gucci: their inventiveness when it comes to exploring both the entertainment and utility aspect of immersive technologies and always finding a way to make it magical.
Gucci Ancora 3D Tram, USDZ
There were several instances of awe for me throughout the immersive experience on AVP. (I’ll share only a few as to not spoil the experience for anyone reading.) At one point, a Gucci Ancora painted tram unexpectedly emerged from the physical bookcase on the far left corner of my living room and continued along the virtual tracks to the other side of the house. There was an aspect of astonishment present that recalled a fabled moment from the history of cinema labeled the “train effect.” In 1896, spectators of the Lumières' Brother’s film, "L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de La Ciotat" ("Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station") were said to have fled the theatre in terror and panic of the speeding locomotive seemingly headed in their direction. Keep in mind, this was the birth of an entirely new medium; not many people had seen the technology of film projection previously.
There’s much debate among historians and theorists whether the audience did in fact run for their lives confusing the image for a real train. I particularly love film historian Tom Gunning’s analysis in “An Aesthetic of Astonishment” (1989), where he wrote, “Rather than mistaking the image for reality, the spectator is astonished by its transformation through the new illusion of projected motion… The astonishment derives from a magical metamorphosis rather than a seamless reproduction of reality.”
And so here too, with the emerging medium of Spatial Computing, and a device that is relatively new to many with AVP, lies a new type of astonishment: one where there is a novel form of illusion presented now in the theatre of your mind, beamed directly to your eyes. I know that train is not real, yet I still suspended disbelief and jumped when I saw it nearing through the corner of my eyes. This speaks to both the magic of AVP and the thoughtful curated moments throughout the Gucci experience.
One of the other things I appreciated about the storytelling from Gucci (different from the other brands at the time of AVP’s launch), was the meaningful use of both Augmented Reality (AR) — where you could still see the physical world around you, but now with digital elements that interact with your surroundings — and Virtual Environments, where you were completely immersed in a virtual world, like Brera for example, and entered an immersive landscape leaving your physical reality behind.
I’m one of those people that can feel uneasy in fully virtual environments especially when there is motion. A common aspect I noticed across the shopping experiences by the other brands at launch was feeling like I was perched high above an immersive virtual landscape with the sensation of my stomach dropping when looking down. I didn’t feel this in the Gucci AVP app. Instead I felt grounded and nestled; I wanted to spend time in these virtual spaces. They evoked wonder.
Elevator Immersive Landscape Virtual Environment in Apple Vision Pro, Gucci App. Screen capture by Helen Papagiannis.
The secret here was the virtual ground beneath me was where I expected it to be, not several feet below me. This instilled a feeling of safety and comfort, which is how you want your audience (and customers) to feel, particularly in what is a new experience for many.
It’s this fine balance of the expected and unexpected I help my clients to navigate to create exceptional, luxurious experiences in this new spatial terrain. Thank you Gucci for the early peek into your immersive storytelling process. This is only the beginning and I can’t wait to see more. Ancora.
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