Ben Robinson: If climate facts don’t change us, what will? Are immersive experiences the answer?

In this conversation, Ben Robinson takes us on a journey from skateboarding in Liverpool and the golden age of UK clubbing, all the way into the cutting edge of immersive experience design and climate communication.

Ben shares how those early subcultures. DIY, community-led, rebellious, and embodied shaped his worldview and eventually his career, leading experiential work for global brands. But the real energy of this episode lies in his current mission: "Using experience design to shift behaviour, mindset, and, ultimately, our relationship with the planet"

We explore how immersive experiences can move people beyond information and into transformation, not just thinking differently, but being different. Ben breaks down concepts like aesthetic vs. extractive attention, embodied cognition, ritual, liminality, and how the “before and after” of an experience is often more important than the moment itself.

Most importantly, he argues that experiential design might be one of the most powerful tools we have to communicate climate realities in a way people can actually absorb, feel, and act on.

If you care about the future of human connection, creativity, or the planet, this conversation will light you up.

Chapters

00:00 – Meeting Ben Robinson & Setting the Scene - Why his world begins in subculture, community, and embodied experiences.

02:00 – Liverpool, Skateboarding & The Roots of Flow - How Ben’s early life shaped his philosophy of movement, cadence and design.

06:45 – Clubbing, Communitas & Designing Collective Energy - The lessons nightlife teaches about pacing, emotion and immersion.

10:50 – From Serendipity to a Career in Experience Design - Ben’s path from DIY culture into global experiential work.

14:25 – When Experiences Create Real-World Impact - The Deutsche Telekom example and why “proving value in the real world” matters.

15:55 – The Experiential Boom & The Battle for Attention - Why experiential is exploding and why attention has become the new currency.

23:10 – Can Experiences Change Our Relationship With the Planet? - The potential for experiential to shift mindsets, behaviour and being.

29:25 – Climate Communication, Immersion & Ontological Change - Why climate facts fail and how immersive experiences reach deeper parts of us.

37:50 – Ritual, Memory & Designing for Transformation - What makes an experience meaningful, not just memorable.

50:15 – The Future of Experiential: From Entertainment to Evolution - Ben’s research, liminality, and the role designers play in shaping future mindsets.

Ben Robinson bio

Award-winning Agency Founder, Experience Designer and Academic Researcher. Growing up in Liverpool during the late 80’s and early 90’s Ben’s life was shaped by two things: skateboarding and clubbing. Experiences that shaped not just what he did, but how he saw the world, and who he was, proving that consciousness is not just embedded (a function of what we think), but embodied (shaped by how we feel), enacted (what we are doing) and extended (and the environment we are in).

Whilst finishing a Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship, Ben started working at KLP Entertainment in London. Alongside seminal agencies like Cake, Slice and Exposure, KLP created what we now know as Experiential marketing and was where the likes of V-Festival,
T in the Park and Creamfields were born. From KLP Ben moved onto TBWA where he co-created GT Academy and Nissan Sports Adventure.

After a number of years as Creative Director at PR agency Freuds, Ben went on to found Proud Robinson and Partners (PRP) an award winning Culture led Creative Practice and Experiential Agency working for the likes Oracle Redbull Racing, General Motors, Diageo, EY, Deutsche Telekom and Samsung. 2 years ago Ben started a PhD in Design and Informatics at the University of Sussex in an effort to better understand exactly how Immersive experiences might be used to promote more positive pluralistic futures.

Connect
Ben@proud-robinson.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-robinson-630b2326/