Marketers seeking an edge in 2016 might take a look at interactive video. According to a new report from Brightcove, interactive video can heighten customer engagement with key audience segments.
According to the report, practitioners broadly define interactive video to include:
Paths/branching: Decision points in the video that allow viewers to choose different story paths.
Interactive experience: Quizzes, calculations, or assessments incorporated within the video.
Click within video: Clickable video hot spots that direct viewers to resources or companion content.
Clickable buttons: Static clickable buttons or banners that connect viewers to related content, information, or calls-to-action.
The top three benefits of interactive video, according to respondents, are: Greater engagement, longer viewing time, and heightened understanding of audience behavior. Other responses included better learning outcomes, message retention, and improved product perception.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents reported that use of interactive video drives better engagement. They noted particular value for e-learning and customer training for classroom use. These use cases benefitted from interactive video’s capacity for gamification, personalization, and creation of a lean-in experience for audiences.
Nearly half of marketing participants reported that creating and deploying interactive video was “easy” or “very easy.” Marketers also reported planning to spend $30,000-$40,000 on interactive video during the next 12 months.
What’s more, the report identifies current barriers to adoption. The top barriers cited included: Time required to create interactive video; integration with other marketing platforms, and interactivity not being supported on some devices. Cost, organizational silos, and resources (the number of people required to create interactive video) were reported as the least challenging barriers reported.
Survey respondents recommended three keys to success:
Define objectives: This initial step is imperative to measure success later in the process.
Consider the challenges: New practices necessitate a learning curve and adjustments, so identify challenges but don’t be deterred by them.
Measure results: Interactive video offers the power to create 1:1 conversations with audiences to better understand their interests and behavior. The key is to analyze metrics in order to fully tap the power of interactive video.
The study results were based onsurvey responses from more than 500 individuals currently using interactive video or considering it for 2016.