The four experience realms

Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore

Staging brand experiences is not just about entertaining customers: it is about engaging them. Experiences can be classified on the basis of two dimensions: participation (active vs passive) and connection (absorption vs immersion).

The four experience realms

Joseph Pine & James H. Gilmore

Staging brand experiences is not just about entertaining customers: It is about engaging them. Experiences can be classified on the basis of two dimensions: participation (active vs passive) and connection (absorption vs immersion). The coupling of these dimensions defines the four realms of an experience: 1) entertainment; 2) education; 3) escapism; and 4) aestheticism. These domains are mutually compatible, often commingling to form uniquely personal encounters.

  1. Entertainment:Experiences that are passively absorbed through the senses, as generally occurs when viewing a performance, listening to music, or reading for...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands