Interactive Content Lessons From The Rosé Mansion

This blog was originally published on the Content4Demand blog. 

I’m not going to lie, I’m a sucker for a good Instagrammable moment. I’ll take a snap of my breakfast (no shame), revel in some post-workout pride and venture to the latest pop-up experience promising an “immersive experience.” That’s why the Rosé Mansion has become a go-to for me and my friend, who is a graphic designer turned art teacher. We’re both are passionate about user experience, branding and, well, wine.

The Rosé Mansion is marketed as equal parts wine bar, amusement park and museum of science for wine. It seems like a big promise, but the team delivers, creating a series of themed rooms. In each room, you get to taste test a specific type of wine, learn about how it is created and how others enjoy it. Once you get your sample, you get to interact with the room, which has a fun design theme, series of props and Instagrammable opportunities. 

I’m riding high on all the fun my friend and I had, and all the interesting things we learned. The most surprising takeaway: how I can apply some of the design concepts from the experience to my everyday work as a content creator. For instance, one room was designed to act as a live-action board game. You walk the path, answer a series of questions about how you like your coffee, your ideal music volume and more. In the end, you get a recommendation for the type of rosé that’s right for you: sweet, semi-sweet and dry. Then, you get to taste-test your selection. Super fun, right?

Well, the easy and rewarding experience got me thinking about how we can make B2B interactive experiences just as enjoyable as this one. You may think it’s a stretch, but here are some things I think we can apply as we attempt to design quizzes and assessments that are rich, engaging and valuable for everyone: 

Take Some Creative Risks 

Connect To A Greater Purpose

The entire goal of the Rosé Mansion is to educate visitors about the pink drink’s history and teach them how to find the right wine for their unique palette. The game supports this broader mission in a fun and actionable way. Your quiz or assessment should do the same, connecting to a broader campaign objective that is valuable for your business. Additionally, it should connect to a broader story that is relevant and entertaining for your audience. 

Make The Journey As Seamless As Possible

This refers equally to the copy and the overall experience. How many times have you seen "quick quizzes" that end up having 15 questions and five potential answers for each? Talk about misleading and frustrating. Don’t give your audience a reason to abandon your experience. Make the questions quick and easy, and the responses even easier. Bonus points if you can make them all yes/no! 

Give Them A Solid Send-Off

You don’t want your buyer to go through a quiz or assessment only to think, "now what?" You want to have a payoff that’s equal to or greater than the time and effort they spent going through the experience. In the mansion, we receive a wine tasting that aligned with our unique preferences. With my clients, I always recommend a higher value outcome, such as a benchmark analysis, recommendations based on maturity levels, or a more detailed piece of content. These provide a clear next step in the decision journey, and empower buyers to consume more information if they so choose. 

Too many times I’ve seen brands try to force an interactive experience that ends up being overly complex and worst of all, not valuable for the buyer. They end up wasting valuable time and marketing budget on something that ultimately doesn’t perform or fit into their campaign goals. But the Rosé Mansion shows that there is a better way and that you can find incredible interactive content inspiration in unlikely places. Sometimes you just need a cocktail…