Researchers at the University of Nottingham are working with local businesses to create a new range of unique, personalised sensory gift experiences.
Shopping for loved ones can be difficult. It's often hard to find something unique, sentimental or relevant to an occasion. However, digital experts from the university are helping businesses to create intensely personalised gift options that allow customers to attach a favourite song to a box of chocolates or send a video greeting with a bunch of flowers.
Researchers from the university will host a special free event for business leaders on Wednesday (12 October) where they'll share the latest immersive technologies and demonstrate examples of hybrid gifts, including handmade artisan chocolates with local chocolatier Studio Chocolate and a Christmas Countdown Clock that has been developed with Nottingham Castle.
We have been exploring mechanisms for combining the physical and digital into more meaningful gifts. The digital element enables customers to deeply personalize gifts in a way they may not have thought possible in the past, while the physical product allows people to continue the familiar rituals of giving and receiving.
The event is part of an EPSRC funded research project called 'Hybrid Gifts.' Through collaboration with industrial partners, researchers have been exploring how different products might become hybrid gifts. Examples include bath products that could be coupled to a music track to create a multi-sensory experience; hand-crafted high-value artisan products such as jewellery that are enriched with stories about how a piece was made or reflections on why it was chosen by the giver, and luxury food gifts such as chocolate that include information about the ingredients but also a personal message from the giver to create an enhanced unwrapping experience.
The workshop has also been created in partnership with Live and Experiential Digital Diversification: Nottingham (LEADD:NG) project, which offers access to new immersive technologies that can benefit local businesses. Helen Kennedy, Professor of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Nottingham, is the project co-lead.
The University has world-leading expertise in the bleeding edge immersive technologies such as augmented reality, wearable technologies and VR that are playing an increasingly important role in the creative and cultural industries - particularly in relation to innovations in games, film, theatre and live musical performance."
Helen continues: "Experimentation with these new tools and techniques is most often concentrated in larger organisations with significant research and development budgets, the LEADD:NG project puts direct access to these technologies in the hands of local artists, performers and SMEs."
The global gifting market now exceeds £30 billion but hybrid gifting is still in its infancy, despite being a rapidly growing sector of the market. That's why researchers are now working with local businesses to explore how immersive technology could unlock further business opportunities.
