One of the video trends that more and more brands are getting on board with is interactive video. This format consists of increasing the user’s interaction while watching the video, giving them the chance to participate and that their role is not just that of a spectator as we are used to in most videos.

This type of content has multiple advantages for the brands that offer it, including:

Improve the user experience.

Interactive posts videos help the user to have a better perception of their experience with the brand, since they feel more included in the process. In addition, one of the current trends in consumer demand is the personalization of the shopping experience, and this type of video in which the user has the option of adapting the reproduction of the content according to their preferences, helps to give that feeling.

Help you get to know your audience better.

Another advantage of this content is that, by encouraging the user to show their preferences, it allows brands to know what the interests of their audience are. Based on the data collected, brands can improve and adapt the content to meet the expectations of their users.

Increases user attention

Currently, due to the large number of stimuli that users receive constantly, it is difficult to maintain the attention of a viewer when watching a video. Therefore, the fact that you can interact with the video increases the engagement of the audience and reduces the probability of abandoning the video.

Improve your brand reputation.

This type of content, despite the fact that more and more brands are offering it, is still not very exploited. Therefore, it is a way to differentiate yourself from your competitors and for users to share their experience with their friends/family, or even through social networks and reach many more people.

Below, we explain different types of interactive videos, and examples of how different brands have used them.

Storytelling Interactive

The type of interactive video that consumers like the most is the one that tells a story and they can choose how it develops. To do this, the user will have to choose between several options at various moments of the video, so that depending on the option they choose, one clip or another will be played. Thus, it gives the feeling that they are watching a personalized video, in which they choose what they want to see.

An example is a video that Maybelline created, in which users could watch a makeup tutorial depending on their preferences.

As you can see, the first choice you have to make is if you want a night look, or a day look. Next, they show you two makeup options based on your previous choice, and you have to choose one of them to see their tutorial.

Another example of this type of video is Netflix interactive movies. Although in this case they are not videos of brands like the previous example, they use the same system.

The first version was that of ” Black Mirror: Bandersnatch “. During the film, two options appear on the screen for the viewer to choose one of them, so that they choose the decisions that the protagonist must make. At the beginning of the movie the choices are quite simple, like what cereal you want me to have for breakfast or what music you want me to listen to. However, as it progresses, the protagonist is involved in more and more extreme situations, making it increasingly difficult to know what decision to make.

Video Shopping

Another interactive video format is video shopping, which consists of the sale of products through a video. On this occasion, the user has less power of interaction, since normally the only thing they can do is see the labels or tabs of the products that appear in the video and buy instantly.

In some cases, you can choose the product that appears in the video, such as changing the color or the model, but it is not the most common.

Because the level of interaction is lower in this format, the purpose of this type of content is for the user to have more information about the product and to see it in use and in motion. This helps in the purchase decision of consumers, and by having the option to buy the product during the video playback; it makes the experience more comfortable.

A platform that is betting heavily on this format is Instagram, in its Instagram Shopping section. In this section we find products labeled both in images and in videos uploaded by the brands, so that the user can buy them without leaving the application.

As you can see in the following screenshots, the “See products” option appears at the bottom of the video. When you click, the menu that you see on the left is displayed, with the product that appears in the video and more products of the brand

On the other hand, YouTube is already working with Shopify to allow users to buy the products that appear in the video without leaving the platform. This could work very well, since many users consume YouTube videos to make purchase decisions, especially thanks to You Tubers who share their experience with the products they consume.

In any case, to offer video shopping to your customers, you do not need to do it through another platform. To give you an example, Stradivarius is one of the brands that has opted for this format with “Cinema8”, and offers this service both in its application and on its website.

But in this case, Stradivarius has decided to offer an improved shopping experience, since the videos in this section are not limited to just showing their products. In this case, they have two girls who show clothes from the collections they put out weekly, talking about them, showing different ways to use them, and even challenging each other to make it more entertaining. In this way, the user feels that he is with two personal shoppers who advise him on what he should buy and why.

While users watch the video, they can see below the product sheet of all the clothes they are wearing and that they show, both the clothes on which the video is focused, as well as the rest of the clothes and accessories they are wearing.

Interactive display

The last format we want to talk about is interactive videos in which the user interacts with the video without changing the clip, so it is 100% focused on improving the experience and offering value to the viewer.

For you to see an example, we show you the video released by Disney together with Cinema8 to promote their latest movie “The Jungle Book”. To interact with the video, you have to move the green icon sideways. In this way you can see the same scene during its filming and its final result .