Leading global corporations, in their quest to achieve digital marketing goals, are increasingly using interactive video as a new form of creative engagement with their consumers and users. Interactive video represents a special type of digital video that supports a unique capability for viewer interaction, allowing the viewer to influence the content they are watching in real-time. This medium provides an immediate user experience and is equally exciting for viewers as it is for the marketers and experts who designed and executed it.
Regardless of whether users are viewing content on a computer, tablet, or mobile phone, interactive video enables them to interact with and influence the video content through various tools. Several different functions can be integrated into interactive videos, with some of the most commonly used being the option to choose how the video continues, the ability to view a 360° panoramic video, personalization of the content displayed on the screen, and answering predefined quiz questions, among others. An important element is also the selection of characters (heroes) who possess specific skills and advantages over other characters in the video.
Given that consumers in interactive videos “navigate” the digital space similarly to video games—often from a “first-person” or “third-person” perspective—they have the opportunity to click on so-called hotspots to explore content, move and drag elements in space, and initiate various digital actions to directly interact with what the video offers.
One of the fundamental classifications of interactive videos is based on linear and multiple choice/multiple ending navigation through the content. In a linear video, the user progresses by selecting answers to questions until reaching one single, predetermined end of the video. On the other hand, a multiple choice interactive video guides the participant down different paths depending on their answers, and the combination of all responses ultimately creates a unique experience and ending that differs based on the answers previously chosen by the user.
Recently, M2Communications designed and implemented the first interactive video digital campaign in the region for Porsche SCG and the automotive brand CUPRA. The key medium of the campaign was the microsite cuprahero.rs, which featured an interactive video competition based on the convergence of gaming and video technology. It was aimed at promoting the innovative CUPRA Formentor SUV coupe.
With the striking slogan “For all the brave who choose a different path,” this interactive adventure aimed to provide players with a fun and engaging way to select characteristics defining the unique CUPRA DNA—speed, agility, or power—and to make the right choices to reach their goal in record time. Users competed for attractive prizes, with several of the fastest winning test drives of the CUPRA Formentor with a professional driver.
The story accompanying the interactive video also highlights certain values that each individual should nurture in their life, regardless of their circumstances. Sometimes, the fastest route and shortcuts are not the best path. Thus, the CUPRA Hero story is intended for those everyday heroes, ordinary people who act in accordance with their own code and true values and know how to choose their path.
From a marketing perspective, the tools used in designing interactive video content provide a more enjoyable and engaging user experience that captures and retains viewers’ attention. In a short time, this new digital medium has become a widely used marketing tool, and recent data from a study by Spiel Creative shows that nearly 90% of surveyed marketing professionals noticed an increase in their online sales after incorporating interactive video, while over 85% said they would create more interactive video content in the future. Therefore, it is reasonable to consider that a significant perspective in online advertising lies in so-called video content marketing.
Interactive video records are becoming one of the most effective marketing tools that can enhance consumer engagement and revitalize brand-user relationships. Considering the trends, it is highly likely that the strengthening of these digital media contents will be significantly noticeable in the future.