Interactive Videos
Interactive Videos have a huge advantage over television, and it’s not just because online viewers can pause, share and replay videos at will. It’s because video production companies have the prime opportunity to create interactive content that prompts your video audience to participate.
Interactive Video Explained
Like other types of interactive content, interactive video carries the overall goal of engaging the audience, allowing them to do more than simply sit there and idly absorb what’s in front of them. Two excellent examples of how production companies can use this strategy to their advantage both happen to come from men’s products.
Old Spice Interactive Video
The Old Spice interactive video campaign involved a series of videos featuring the Old Spice Man responding to previous comments from the online audience. And he certainly had a lot of responses to make, as the campaign ended up with 185 videos.
Philips Razor Interactive Video
Philips razor was seeking a creative way to get the largely notorious unresponsive male audience involved with its product. So it launched an interactive video campaign for the Click & Style electric razor that showcased how the product worked by letting viewers choose the style the guy with the razor would employ.
Tips for Creating Interactive Videos
Really knowing your target audience is key for creating an interactive video to which viewers will be eager to respond. A few tips can help create an effective video that truly gets the audience involved.
Present choices the audience actually cares about. Philips did a great job with this by stirring up interest in men who might use their razor, giving the guys ready-made examples of how they could style their facial hair with its product. If Philips had instead asked its target male audience to, say, choose between red or blue bath towels, the video may have bombed.
Keep choices reasonable. Providing way too many choices can befuddle your audience, resulting in absolutely no interaction whatsoever. A good rule of thumb is to present no more than four choices per selection, and never making it too tough for the audience to decide.
Make sure it’s mobile friendly. While the Philips campaign was effective on all devices, the mobile viewers were the ones that interacted the most vehemently. The average mobile viewer spent a full five minutes interacting with the video, compared to the 3 minutes 55 seconds spent by other device users.
One final tip for is to make sure your audience is having fun. The more fun your viewers are having, the more likely they’ll want to stick around, interact and share your highly amusing video with all their friends.
