April 17, 2013
YouTube launched annotated videos in 2010; this function allows you to link to other videos within your own video. This lets you create highly engaging videos for fans. Producing an innovative and creative video campaign can result in millions of views and great brand awareness; however, despite being launched 3 years ago many brands have kept interactive videos at arm’s length.
Here are a few reasons why brands should embrace the interactive YouTube video:
Make useful ‘How to’ guides:
YouTube is littered with how to guides and the interactive video is the perfect way of revolutionising how we learn. Take a look at this how to guide for making wine by Clos de la Tech!
[Clos de la Tech.] (2013, Feb 1) How To Make Wine – An Interactive Video Guide.
Using interactive videos for how to guides is a great way for brands to direct customers to specific problems.
Create a fun gaming experience:
Hot Wheels created this fantastic Custom Motors Cup Challenge Campaign through which interactive videos fans became the pit crew chief. The aim was to customise your chosen car with the right gear for the right track, and race your car across 3 tracks to victory.
[HOTWHEELS] (2010, Feb 18) Hot Wheels Custom Motors Cup Challenge.
Engage fans with a unique story telling experience:
For their ‘Choosing a different ending’ anti-weapons campaign, the Metropolitan Police produced an interactive video series which allows the user to assume the film’s character and choose what happens next. You can interact with it, choose what to do and decide how it ends, as an effort to show that the choices you make have real impact on your life.
[adifferentending] (2009, Jul 3) Choose A Different Ending.
Show creativity:
Hell Pizza showed their creative side by producing this fun and quirky zombie themed interactive video in which your actions determined whether you would survive a zombie apocalypse. Their start video has almost 10 million hits on YouTube, showing that creativity really encourages engagement.
[HellPizzaNZ] (2010, Jul 29) Interactive zombie movie adventure.
They are not as complicated to make as you think:
Check out YouTube’s quick guide as to how to make an interactive video…
[VitaminCM.com] (2010, Sep 15) How to Create an Interactive YouTube Video.
You can still be interactive without the annotations:
If you aren’t sure about using annotated videos, you can still produce interactive videos without using annotations. Skittles produced an excellent series of videos last year that encouraged audience interaction in a quirky way by simply telling them to put their finger on the screen where the skittle was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_746068&feature=iv&src_vid=eDlaJlb1ezg&v=6Q-h7_6NX1A
[skittlespage] (2012, Mar 18) Skittles Touch: Skittles Princess.