Brandscapes reimagined: semiotic structures in branded virtual environments

The rapid integration of Virtual Reality (VR) into the digital ecosystem is transforming brands from passive content delivery into a powerful spatial entertainment. Within them, global brands are designing complex, themed virtual brandscapes to secure deep user engagement. This article adopts a critical, qualitative semiotic analysis to investigate the multimodal sign systems (visual, spatial, auditory, and interactive) within three distinct branded VR worlds: Gucci Town, IKEA’s Co-Worker Game, and NIKEland. The analysis synthesizes classical semiotic theory with Sherry’s brandscape theory. Results illustrate how a curated architecture of meaning can emulate brand worlds virtually, manage user attention, and spatial orientation through curated zones. This semiotic infrastructure functions as an enticing virtual entertainment, encoding brand attributes as gamified rewards and interactive cues designed to initiate specific consumption behaviors. The conceptual advancement demonstrates how VR environments translate semiotic systems into motivational constructs that transform users into participants within a choreographed brand narrative. Within these persuasive spatial presences, lines are blurred between entertainment, sociality, and branding, establishing a strong mechanism of influence. The article concludes by arguing that strategically designed VR brandscapes have the potential to foster addictive and exploitative user engagement.