As a professional, you should be able to quickly recognize the newest innovations in content. This is especially true with video because of its constantly evolving nature.
Creating videos can be great, but you should always keep an eye out for newer types of video formats that are emerging. One of these emerging video formats that is gaining popularity is interactive videos.
Being familiar with interactive videos and using them can help boost your business even more. This is because there is a good chance that most of your competitors have not tried making these videos yet.
While normal videos can always get you good numbers and results for engagement, interactive videos offer a deeper level of connection that your audience will not get from watching their standard videos.
In this article, you will take a deep dive into the potential of interactive videos, why you should make them, where you can use them, what you need, and how you should design them along with some examples of the best interactive videos.
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What Are Interactive Videos?
To define it in a simple manner, these are digital videos that support and allow user interactions. These videos allow the viewers to dictate the video’s story which is not possible in standard videos.
This allows interactive videos to have limitless possibilities in terms of engaging with its audience. You can have gamified content, give quizzes, clickable menus, interactive storylines, and allow viewers to control their viewer perspective.
The appeal of these videos really boils down to how they share the power to create with its viewers. This is something you will never experience with typical videos.
Why Should You Create Interactive Videos?
Here are five reasons why your company should start creating interactive videos for your audience:
1. Interactive videos are highly engaging.
When your audience watches a linear video, they may easily get distracted. Around 87% of viewers are using more than one device at a time. This means that you are already competing for the attention of your audience.
Interactive videos create a more active experience which relies heavily on storytelling. This makes audiences much more likely to feel engaged with what they are watching. It grabs and keeps a viewer’s attention and results in much higher user activity.
2. Interactive videos are fully trackable.
For the longest time, the only way marketers were able to track the success of a video was through looking at the view rates. However, this caused some problems because these metrics were not able to directly show a correlation between video activity and conversions. This, in turn, makes it hard for marketers to prove a video’s impact.
With interactive videos, you are now able to collect data on the choices made by your viewers. There are now more powerful video metric trackers that can track clicks, collect data, and analyse different paths that your viewers took in your interactive videos.
3. Interactive videos can easily be gamified.
Interactive videos rely on the viewers being in control and choosing decisions about what they want to happen on the screen next. It is very simple to gamify these choices they make and create a game-based experience with points or even achievements.
You can create multiple content pathways for a user to create an experience that is unique to them in a way that is not possible with linear videos. Creating this game-like experience makes viewing active instead of the usual passive and grabs and keeps a user’s attention.
4. Interactive videos can help increase brand popularity.
It is not enough for your company to just always be on the lookout for innovations. You need to actually try these innovations out or participate in them for you to have an edge.
In the current landscape, the general public sees the value when a company tries to engage in modern or innovative trends and activities. They will also start to expect something new from that company which keeps them attentive to the things that they publish, produce, or upload.
5. Interactive videos help create conversions.
Interactive videos have significantly higher conversion rates compared to other types of digital videos advertisements.
When it comes to typical video ads like banner ads, Google display ads, and Youtube Annotations, these types convert at rates of just less than 1%. However, interactive videos have proven to be more effective than all of those because they convert at a rate of more than 11%.
Where Can You Use Interactive Videos?
Product Marketing
One of the main reasons that a company would use interactive videos is to promote their product or service that they are providing to their audience. These videos can include a lot of different features and mechanics. They are primarily focused on showcasing their featured product or service.
These interactive videos can be effective for this purpose of marketing because it adds fresh and innovative elements of excitement, inclusion, and participation. Instead of experiencing the usual one-way communication, the viewer now has the opportunity to be an active participant. Being active makes them feel closer to the product and company. This makes them more likely to inquire and purchase.
Raising Awareness
Another purpose for making interactive videos that may not be as popular is doing these for raising awareness or making public service announcements. Since we are so used to living in a world where we are consumers, we are used to most of the content we consume being about entertainment or products, but this is not always true of interactive videos.
Trying to get important messages across about something important like communicating with people with disabilities may be difficult, but using interactive videos can make this a lot easier. Interactivity in these awareness videos can be made to educate the viewer and engage with the content and topics on a more emotional level.
E-Learning Efforts
E-learning is just an alternative way of saying online education, which on its own already covers several different categories. The main category that will be covered by interactive videos will be the standard educational videos.
These standard educational videos teach people how things work in a simplified way that’s easily understandable by using interactive videos to instill things more easily into their memories. Since we learn better when we are paying more attention to things, having interactive videos will help ease their learnings because they require more attention compared to other videos.
Portraying the Brand’s Image
Another popular reason for creating interactive videos is to help illustrate the image of your brand. Brands are more than just the products or services that they provide. They are the opinions that people have of them, who they are, and what they stand for.
Taking care of these elements outside of your products or service can be crucial for acquiring brandy loyalty and trust with your customers. While it is important to market your products, promoting and displaying your brand image through interactive videos can give a closer look to your audience about what your company is and can do for them.
Entertaining Viewers
One of the best ways to utilize interactive videos is to provide viewers with a different type of entertainment. Not every video is used for marketing, some are made just to give audiences something to watch and enjoy.
A recent example is how Netflix is incorporating their viewers to take actions and make decisions in some of their movies and series which can completely affect how the story evolves. Look for this development to continue and to be even more refined in the future with more companies trying out how to incorporate interactivity to their video content.
Enhance User Experience
Lastly, interactive videos can also be utilised to enhance the user experience of people that are visiting your website. User experience is simply the term given to the overall experience a customer has with your brand. This covers your products, website, or sales support.
Some companies have started to incorporate these interactive videos to make their user experience more convenient for their website visitors. This can make their experience more personalized and easier when it comes to knowing more about the products and eventually making a purchase.
Different Types of Interactive Videos
360 Degree View or Perspective Changes
This is a very popular option especially for those concerned with tourism or travel. Allowing your viewers to have a 360 degree view lets them look at different areas and angles that are not viewable when they are just watching a normal linear video.
A sub-branch of these types of interactive videos are the videos that can be experienced in virtual reality. VR interactive videos can be any style and cover different types of videos. However, the simple and effective 360 degree first person view is a classic staple that can be used to showcase VR and certain tourist locations.
Here is an example of a 360 degree video from CNN:
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz8og_hcpzE
Gamified Videos
Gamified videos are another notable type of interactive videos. Gamification simply means incorporating game mechanics into your video. The different elements or mechanics could come in forms of quizzes, scores, levels, and even achievements.
Having these mechanics require the use to participate and perform some kind of action which can either be given a score or be told is the right option. Gamification helps increase the level of attention to these videos which can also be great for e-learning videos.
Here is an example of a gamified video from Deloitte:
Video Link: http://www.raptmedia.com/customers/deloitte/
Choose Your Own Adventure
Probably the most popular type of interactive video is a video where you get to choose how your own adventure goes inside the story of the video. This is what major content companies like Netflix are incorporating into some of their video content.
Choose your own adventure videos can apply to a lot of things. Some of these videos have their specific fully fleshed out narratives with multiple endings and options. Choosing different options has the ability to make the narrative change. This is an engaging and entertaining way to relay a message and to fully immerse your viewers into this narrative world you have placed themselves in.
Here is an example of a choose your own adventure video from Lifesaver:
Video Link: https://www.life-saver.org.uk/
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Highly Engaging Interactive Videos
Step One – Establish the purpose of the video
Before going forward in creating your video, you should establish why you want to create an interactive video in the first place. Do you want to market your product? Are you trying to make people aware of a certain cause? Do you want to display your brand image?
Whatever purpose it is that you decide on, it should be made clear so that everything after this step will run smoothly.
Step Two – Identify your target audience
Knowing your target audience is just as important as establishing the purpose of your video. Identifying the right audience is the key to grab great levels of engagement in your videos.
Not all audiences enjoy and interact with the same things, so it is important that you focus on a target audience so that you can clearly identify what they want and love when they watch videos.
Step Three – Determine the style of your video
Once you have established your purpose and identified your audience, it will be a lot easier to choose what style of interactive video you would like to create. Budgeting will be an important factor at this step as some videos may be more expensive to make compared to others.
You don’t have to fixate on just one style, you can have the opportunity to blend different styles into your interactive video. Just make sure that it would still work with the budget and be something that your audience will find interesting.
Step Four – Produce your interactive video
Production is important, especially for more intricate types of videos like interactive videos.
Typically the video production process will consist of three major stages:
- Pre-production – this stage includes video ideation, production planning, writing a script, and crafting a storyboard.
- Production – this stage focuses on shooting the video with the help of directors, producers, actors etc.
- Post-production – this stage is where editors work on stitching all the footage together and adding graphics or effects to make the video more visually appealing.
You can check out this article if you want to learn more about the whole video process of producing a video. If you are looking for a video production company that can help you navigate through the process of producing videos and even interactive videos, then you can check out our team at fewStones.
Producing interactive videos will be more challenging compared to typical videos because it requires additional details, options, and endings that linear videos do not need.
Your video should be produced according to your established purpose and your target audience. Make sure that your story is relatable to your audience and that the visuals and graphics are visually pleasing.
Step Five – Choose your distribution platforms
Once you have sorted out your production and everything is ready to be uploaded, you now have to decide where you will distribute your interactive video.
Will you release the video on video platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram? Will you also post it on your website and your social media accounts? These are all important questions that you have to answer before finalizing the release of your interactive video.
Experts’ Tips On How to Design Your Interactive Videos
1. Use interactions appropriately
If the interactions do not make much of an impact to the story, your audience will not engage with the video for long.. You should not rush your introduction into marketing through interactive videos by making them just for the sake of hopping on the trend without any real substance.
What you need to do is to design these interactive videos as an experience. Think about what your target audience loves, feels, and needs and appeal to all of those. Take your time in planning out all the interactive elements you want to place so that they will be meaningful to your audience.
2. Integrate interactive videos into your strategy
Using interactive videos is a great way to improve your results that are related to engagements and conversions. Think about the goals of your campaign and think of ways to use these videos to help achieve those goals.
One example is that interactive videos allow you to place multiple call-to-action prompts to direct your viewers to your different offers. You can use this feature as a way to boost your conversion by guiding the right type of viewer to the appropriate product or service you are offering.
3. Provide as much entertainment as possible
Do not forget that a surefire way of highly engaging with your audience is through entertainment. Interactive videos can have a larger appeal if it causes that effect on your viewers. Because of this, when you plan your video, you should always make sure that the content and the narrative will be entertaining for your target audience.
Incorporating entertainment can apply to different strategies and video styles. For example, you can provide footage of a concert in a 360 degree view to show what it may look like closer to the stage. Also, if you want your interactive video to be driven by the story, you can create multiple options and endings.
Examples of Interactive Videos
Disney’s The Jungle Book
This is Disney’s interactive video to promote the release of the live-action version of The Jungle Book:
VIDEO LINK: http://www.junglebookinteractive.com/
For the release of their movie, The Jungle Book, Disney gave their fans an inside look at how this live-action version of the movie was made. The interactive video has a slider which fans can move to how the movie was actually filmed.
They can also click on the characters which will open up a profile that briefly describes them. With this, Disney was able to showcase how they produced one of their more popular stories which helps build a closer relationship with the fans of the animated movie and those that are excited to watch this live-action version.
BBC Scotland
Here is BBC Scotland’s interactive 360 degree video:
VIDEO LINK: https://fb.watch/3jlMjiEk_w/
In 2019, a well renowned travel guidebook named Scotland as the most beautiful country in the world. One huge reason for that was because of Glen Coe. Glen Coe is a valley in Scotland that cuts through the ruins of an ancient volcano and has become known for being one of the most wonderful landscapes in the world.
BBC Scotland provided an immersive experience with their 360 degree interactive video of Glen Coe. This video allows their viewers to experience the landscape from a more intimate point of view at almost all possible angles which simulates the feeling of being actually there in Scotland.
Honda – The Other Side
This is an interactive video that Honda produced for their marketing campaign, The Other Side, which promoted their Honda Civic model:
VIDEO LINK: http://view.wirewax.com/8117237
This interactive video takes the viewer on two journeys that are happening simultaneously. Viewers can press “R” at any point in the video to view the alternate journey which is taking place at night as opposed to the initial journey which takes place during the day.
The two different scenarios showcase the two different ways someone can use their Honda Civic. It can either be used as a typical family car, but also has the ability to become a great getaway vehicle. This interactive video is a fun and unique experience and encourages the viewers to stick with the content to find out more about the story and the car.
Nike – Air Max Dia
This is Nike’s interactive video for their Air Max Dia where you can style your own outfit:
VIDEO LINK: https://hypemaker.co/nike-2/
This is a fun interactive video from Nike which lets you choose your own outfit for a photo shoot. The stylist will interact with you, ask questions, and give you a positive confirmation with each clothing selection you make.
Then once you decide on what you prefer for your shoes, top, and bottoms, you will see a model wearing all your choices for a photo shoot. This gives you a realistic idea of how outfits would look and allows Nike to show a natural way to tie in their products. You can eventually shop for those products in the end or replay the video and try different combinations.
Samsung Galaxy
This is Samsung’s interactive video which guides viewers on the camera features of a Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone:
VIDEO LINK: http://www.raptmedia.com/customers/samsung-interactive-product-training/
To educate viewers on the newest features of their smartphone camera, Samsung used an interactive video to showcase them. The video helps walk customers through the different features and buttons that are for the camera.
An interactive menu prompts the viewers to choose which features they want to learn about more and tells them what you need to press to enable these features. The voice over and the hand gestures provide a good guide as to what to click and what you want to learn more about.
Newton Running – Choosing a Shoe
This is an interactive video from Newton Running which lets viewers choose their running shoe:
VIDEO LINK: http://www.raptmedia.com/customers/newton-running-choose-shoe/
This interactive video simulates an in-person consultation for a runner looking for the right type of shoes for their specific needs. The interactive buttons customize the experience which allows viewers to check out the recommended products based on their foot type and preferences.
Newton does a great job of informing the viewer and helping them out with their purchase decisions based on their foot type and experience level without needing to consult an expert.
Now that you have seen the benefits of creating interactive videos, you may start thinking about how you could create these for your company. Our team at fewStones can help you create interactive videos that will engage and entertain your target audience.
With fewStones, you will be able to work with a team of video professionals who have had a wealth of experience in creating video content so you are assured of a great interactive video experience for your viewers.
You can also view our other videography and photography services on our website and receive an instant quote for free from us.
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