The marketing-industrial complex has been promising interactive video for years now. But as with most trends, the reality doesn’t always match the hype.
That is, until now.
The breakneck pace of technology development has finally evolved beyond shoppable video and “insert-name-here” graphics to really create interactive videos. Brett Lindenberg, CEO and Founder at Mindstamp is among those leading this trend.
Using Mindstamp, you can create interactive video from any video asset in your library. At its most basic, Minstamp layers interactivity on top of preexisting videos. For more immersive experiences, you can create branching video libraries with conditional logic that allows viewers to basically choose their own adventure.
The result: smart training content, video chat bots that are actually useful, and an engaging user experience.
As video creators, we find this fascinating and encouraging. We sat down with Brett for a peak behind the curtain, to understand how interactive video works and why it’s a hot video trend. Before you read on, check out the sample interactive video below.
Why Create Interactive Video?
At IdeaRocket, we don’t just jump on any passing fad. We look for technology that adds value rather than just flair. Interactive video fits that bill.
Brett says it can be as simple as asking viewers to engage once or twice. “Just having them click that button makes them say ‘I’m a part of this.’”
And as any marketer knows. Engagement is essential. A lot of content out there asks viewers to passively ingest content. That means they may not be fully paying attention, or might swipe away if they get bored.
Interactivity takes the already high-engagement format of video and ups the ante to keep audiences invested longer. You can use it to serve a video quiz that offers specific product recommendations, to train employees and check their knowledge along the way, or to deliver customized vmail messages at scale.
Because the interactive elements are added as a layer on top of your video, changes are easy. You can create interactive video out of any video asset you already have and change the interactive elements later if needed.
“It future-proofs your content. Any changes are instantly live since it is that hosted, embedded experience,” Brett said.
That lets you get the most out of every video asset. As offers change, your videos can morph to fit them. Now that you have some good reasons to make videos interactive, here’s how to do it.
How to make a Video Interactive
You start by making a great video. Then you either upload it to Mindstamp or use their API to put the video into an interactive player. From there, you can drag and drop elements including:
- Buttons
- Lead capture forms
- Drawings
- Calls to action
- Video paywalls
- Questions
- Conditional logic
When you’re done, just click “share” to publish your video. You can use your video on your website, send it in an email, or link to it from ads.
You can add interactive elements to any video but, as Brett says, the best results come from video that is designed with interaction in mind. For animated video, that might mean leaving blank spaces for buttons or creating custom drawings that can be added depending on how the user engages.
The video should give cues that it will be interactive. Either with graphics, in voiceover, or both, you can let people know that it’s time to click, make a selection, or answer a question.
You can even create a whole library of videos or video clips and use conditional logic to jump between them in response to viewer interactions.
What’s holding back progress
Despite the breathtaking pace of technological development, there’s still one thing holding interactive video back from becoming the standard:
“There’s no such thing as an interactive video file format,” Brett said.
All interactive video platforms are basically a sophisticated video player and library overlaid with a layer of logic. For that reason, you can’t host interactive videos on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or any of the other big video hosting platforms.
A few, like Vimeo, have some built-in interactive tools. But those are still few and far between. Unless (or more likely, until) some tech genius finds a way to package interactivity into a file format, interactive videos will need to be hosted by Mindstamp or on your website.
It’s a limitation, but not an insurmountable one. There are plenty of creative ways to share self-hosted interactive video.
Where Interactive Video Shines Today
We won’t be surprised to see interactive videos popping in new and surprising places over the next few years. Right now, they’re showing up in…
- Chat Bots – that deliver targeted video clips in response to viewer queries
- Video Quizzes – to suggest the perfect product or service for each customer
- Training and Development – say goodbye to boring training videos
- Intense Personalization – create templates that offer a personalized video for every customer at scale
- Trade shows – collect leads and make connections without overworking your team
Interactive video is particularly good at lead capture. You can ask viewers to provide an email and other info at any point during the video. Mindstamp integrates with several popular CRMs including Hubspot and Salesforce.
For Quality Interactive Videos, Start Here
The best interactive videos combine engaging storytelling with smart opportunities for interaction. That means they start with a quality video. At IdeaRocket, we help marketers, HR teams, medical and pharmaceutical companies, and anyone else who needs high-quality video to connect with their audience. Contact us to start creating your video library.
