Immersion & Safari Sessions

An immersion, often referred to as a safari session, is a hugely influential project for Clients. It is often thought that Client customers are very well-known and understood; however, the reality is that many Insight and Marketing agency teams will often lose the real ‘human’ view of who their customers are. This isn’t surprising, given that customers are all that some Clients focus on, day in and day out. Adding to this that, when faced with data alone, we lose sight of the more tactile, human side of our customers. This is particularly the case when the audience is notably different from the typical office-based professional – for example, sub-prime or high-net-worth. Often in these scenarios, a series of stereotypes replace reality, which can ultimately be very damaging to progress.

To get around this, we need to spend quality time with our customers – not in a commercial environment, but a more relaxed, more realistic space. We do this by spending time with them as they go about their routines and seeing their world first-hand, alongside them. By taking this step, we can generate a more robust and sympathetic view of our customers – this is the true power of an immersion. 

We start the process by carefully recruiting participants that are very close to the brand(s) in question, with a range of histories in the category. 

For some sessions, we recruit participants with a friend who is also in the category, making what we referred to as a ‘friendship pair’. This allows participants to feel more comfortable and open throughout the process. From this point, we will interact with our participants as they go about their usual activities, but most importantly how they are naturally interacting with our brands in a legitimate, yet observable manner. This all allows us to really empathise and experience their world as they see it. 

The end result of this research is often a seismic shift in attitude and, on many occasions, Clients have told us just how surprised they are and that the experience was very humbling and invigorating – so much so, that some Clients make this a yearly exercise to remain grounded and close to the customer.