An Introduction to Interactive Video

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With market saturation constantly providing barriers to success, it’s important to find new and effective ways of capturing the attention of your target audience. Businesses still need creative and concise ways to communicate their products or services to their target audience, and one powerful solution that is relatively new to the digital world is interactive video. In this blog, we delve into the world of interactive video, exploring exactly what it is, highlighting its benefits and providing practical insights on how to create these immersive experiences. Keep reading to find out more.

What is interactive video?

Interactive video is a dynamic and non-linear form of media that goes beyond traditional linear storytelling. It allows viewers to actively engage with the content by clicking on hotspots, answering questions, making choices and exploring different paths within the video. This engagement empowers your audience to tailor their viewing experience, resulting in a more personalised and impactful interaction with your brand.

We teamed up with GSS recently to create this interactive video which tells two sides of the same story, from both a canine perspective and the human perspective. We don’t like to blow our own trumpet but we personally feel that it offers the perfect blend of both insights to a career with GSS. Give it a watch and interact for the full experience; let us know what you think. 

Five reasons why you need to use interactive video in your next campaign

Is interactive video simply another media fad? Or will it actually benefit your business? Let’s explore some of the benefits of interactive video. 

Interactive video enhances engagement and immersion

Interactive video captivates viewers by turning them into active participants, rather than passive observers. By giving your audience control over their journey through the content, you create a deeper emotional connection and a sense of ownership, leading to increased engagement and longer viewing times.

It can increase brand awareness and recognition

In a crowded digital landscape, standing out from the competition is crucial in order to make a lasting impression. Interactive video enables you to deliver a unique and memorable brand experience, helping you to remain memorable to your audience. When viewers actively interact with your content, they are more likely to remember your brand and message.

Personalise the viewing experience with interactive video

Interactive video allows you to tailor content to individual preferences, ensuring that each viewer receives a personalised experience. By collecting data through interactions, you can deliver relevant content and recommendations bespoke to the individual consumer, making the viewer feel valued and understood.

Interactive video can aid sales and boost conversions

Engaging and immersive experiences have a direct impact on conversion rates. By effectively showcasing your products or services in an interactive manner, addressing pain points and highlighting unique selling points (USPs), you can drive higher conversion rates and increase sales.

It’ll enable you to gather valuable audience insights

Interactive video not only engages viewers but also provides valuable data on audience behaviour. Metrics such as click-through rates, interaction patterns and quiz results offer insights into viewer preferences and pain points, helping you refine your marketing strategies and respond to your audience accordingly.

How to make interactive videos

Here at Bearded Fellows, we find our clients in Manchester and London can often feel that making interactive videos is a daunting task; and they may not have the skills in-house. However, if you can find the right creative video agency to support your interactive content ambitions, you can benefit from the advantages that it has to offer, as well as captivate your audience. If you’re not sure where to start, here are five steps to help guide you through the process of creating an interactive video.

1. Create a clear and engaging brief

Start by defining the purpose and objectives of your interactive video. Understand your target audience and their preferences to craft content that resonates with them. A clear and engaging brief will guide the creative process and be referred to continuously, ensuring that the final video meets your marketing goals. For further support on writing a video brief, check out our recent blog post: How to Write a Video Brief for a Creative Video Agency.

2. Choose the right interactive elements

This is the crucial bit! Depending on your content and goals, select the most suitable interactive elements for your video. Options include branched stories, hotspots, polls, quizzes and 360-degree views. Each element serves a different purpose and can be used strategically to enhance the viewer’s experience.

3. Collaborate with a creative agency or in-house team

Involving a creative agency or your in-house team can be beneficial for brainstorming innovative ideas and executing them effectively. Collaborating with experts will ensure that your interactive video is professionally produced and aligned with your brand’s messaging.

Here at Bearded Fellows, we have worked with multiple clients in the Manchester, London and surrounding areas to create unique, engaging interactive videos that align with the brand’s values and ethos. As a creative video agency, we have the benefit of multiple creative experts to support the process, ensuring the final result is as engaging and memorable as possible. Want to learn more about how creative video agencies can maximise your ROI? Take a read of our recent blog post: What is a Creative Video Agency?

4. Select the appropriate video platform

Choose a video platform that supports interactive features and aligns with your marketing objectives. Popular interactive video platforms like Cinem8 and Wirewax via Vimeo (our personal favourites). Others include Mindstamp, Eko, Verse and Adobe, who offer user-friendly interfaces and robust interactive capabilities. Each video platform has it’s own, unique benefits. Therefore it’s worth researching these thoroughly before selecting the platform which you feel is most appropriate for your business.

5. Test and optimise

Before launching your interactive video, thoroughly test it to ensure smooth functionality across different devices and platforms in order to reduce any errors or incapabilities. Gather feedback from a test audience to identify any areas for improvement. Further, it’s wise to continuously optimise the video based on audience response and behaviour.

Four examples of interactive videos

Learning and development

Interactive video is ideal for educational purposes, providing an engaging way to deliver training materials, quizzes and simulations to learners. From first aid training to additional course enhancements, it can further embed learning to aid retention of information.

If you wanted to see an incredible example of a learning and development interactive video, we highly recommend watching this anxiety introduction by NCase. Through the use of spoken audio, music and interactive elements, it teaches the viewer all about how neurons work. In addition, it explains how anxiety is formed and provides a brief introduction on how you can train your brain to ‘un-learn’ such behaviour. 

Narrative video

Utilise interactive storytelling to present multiple perspectives or endings to a story, making the viewing experience more immersive and participatory. As a creative video studio in Manchester, we have previously used interactive video to display two sides of a recruitment story to engage the audience as effectively as possible.

A perfect example of an effective narrative video is this masterpiece by Honda which has stood the test of time. By simply pressing the mouse on the interactive video, the story seamlessly blends from day to night. It shows both a parent driving their child around, as well as an alternative story of a heist on the same roads at night. As a result, they managed to create a compelling video to convey the feeling of excitement, whilst also selling a car.

Product showcases

Interactive video can be an effective tool to use when showcasing your products. It allows participants to explore the features of a product, identify key benefits, as well as discover customisation options.

In this useful interactive video, a presenter speaks directly to the viewer, offering them a concise list of questions to answer before recommending the most ideal products, based on their answers. Not only does this allow the viewer to have a more personalised experience than simply shopping online, but it also allows the business to gain an insight into their audience’s needs and desires in a product. 

Hyper narratives

Relatively new to the media world are hyper narratives. Netflix recently incorporated interactive video in a variety of TV shows and movies to offer viewers choices in the storyline. This enables them to navigate the narrative in a non-linear fashion, enhancing user engagement and providing a long lasting impression.

Interactive video agency in Manchester and London

Interactive video is a powerful tool that can elevate your marketing efforts and leave a lasting impression on your audience. By incorporating interactive video into your campaigns, you can enhance engagement, increase brand awareness and drive conversions. As a leading creative video agency based in Manchester and also serving London, Bearded Fellows can help you create compelling and impactful videos that resonate with your target audience. Want to take the first step towards harnessing the potential of interactive video? Reach out to our friendly team today and watch your brand’s awareness and engagement reach new heights.