Is Interactive Video about to Boom?
Gavin Knight talks to WIREWAX’s Steve Callanan about the future of interactive video in our increasingly online world.
Interactive hot spots & story choices in videos are not new, many brands have used them to get clicks straight to their buying platforms from websites — particularly fashion. With online shopping surging in 2021, is interactive video about to see growth too?
This month we caught up with Steve Callanan, CEO & founder of WIREWAX, the interactive video specialist. WIREWAX is coming up to its 12th birthday this summer and since its inception has been ahead of the interactive video market thanks to early adopters like Nike, the BBC & Ted Baker.
Gavin Knight made his first interactive videos in 2014 & wanted to find out more about this marketplace from Steve. Critically, will social platforms like Facebook & Instagram upgrade their technology platforms so that the links within product videos connect seamlessly with retail sites? Some still images on social media platforms do this already & some videos on YouTube/Vimeo are interactive too, like the 2019 Call of the Wild TV series promotion.
What’s the marketplace like for interactive video at the moment?
Steve: “There is no doubt video is booming. There is not a company or brand that doesn’t appreciate the value that video can provide. Most businesses have now adopted video in some form or another and have a steady stream of content output. Marketing, ecommerce, support, learning and corporate comms are fairly adept at commissioning or creating content now. As we enter a new way of working, it’s clear video will forever play a major part in shaping how brands communicate with customers, how management converses with staff and how we all work together and consume news and information.”
So where does interactive video fit into all this?
“Well, conventional video can be enormously powerful, we’ve all seen that, but it’s a one-way message. As a viewer you have no choice other than to sit back and watch.
We are programmed to stop, obey and watch the content we consume. But that doesn’t sit well with an ultra-interactive, hyper on-demand, self-determined experience we find elsewhere in the modern digital world. We can get hold of any information we want, when we want it. So, ‘linear’ and restrictively defined video consumption goes against the freedom of information and choice we’ve grown very accustomed to elsewhere. For that reason audiences are beginning to realise that video needs to up its game.
This is why we’ve seen a growth across every sector and in every department of business. Over the last two years we’ve witnessed extraordinary interest in WIREWAX, striking levels of traffic through our website and conversion funnel, and this year we’ve seen month-on-month double-digit growth in sales.”
Examples of applications include:
- Shoppable look-books for MatchesFashion, Reebok & M.A.C
- Style-pickers for Nike
- Staff orientation videos by McDonalds
- Choice-driven travel videos from Nat Geo
- Patient instruction videos for GSK, Sharecare and Acuvue
- Interactive financial market walkthroughs from Wall Street Journal
All of them see up to 5x longer engagement, twice as much information retention, 67% better brand recall and 9x higher purchase intent.
“Google took the unprecedented steps to ask WIREWAX to develop the world’s first interactive TV app for Android TV and Google TV devices. INTERACTIVE™ was launched at the end of last year, is free to install.
This finally brings interactive and shoppable content into the living room using your standard TV remote.”
I made my first interactive videos in 2014 & the technology has been around for a while, so why isn’t it more widely used?
“It’s hard to find a reputable organisation that hasn’t already embraced interactive or at least begun to explore it. Tesco, Radisson, Target, Lego, IKEA, Ford, Samsung, NBCU, Disney, and many others are investing heavily in WIREWAX videos, some of which you may have already seen.
These organisations along with thousands of other users are realising the gains to be had and are ramping up their use across all their content. But, as we’ve seen — it took over 10 years for video to become an integral part of communication for organisations, and it will take time for teams to adapt and for content creation to be considered differently. However, judging by recent activity, I think we’ll see this happen very rapidly over the next few years.”
What are the key benefits for brands & advertisers?
“Without doubt the benefits for brands, advertisers and publishers who adopt interactive video is the unparalleled engagement you can expect from audiences. In a world where every second of attention from consumers and audiences is a priceless commodity, increasing engagement up to five times longer over conventional video is a metric that obliterates the performance of other means of reaching audiences. What’s more, independent studies have found that interactive video significantly increases consumer trust, brand recall and intent to buy. By simply adding one interactive hotspot to your video, you’ve instantly punched a crater into your paradigm KPIs.
Allowing viewers to navigate through content with branching storylines and non-linear narratives increases time spent, viewer enjoyment and brand respect. It all comes down to one word — choice. Give viewers a choice to choose how they consume your content and they’ll reward you 10-fold.”
Which social media platforms are embracing interactive technology?
“Social media has been slow to develop their own interactive video offering and that’s why they look to platforms like ours to help plug the gap and serve the growing need. WIREWAX has long been the preferred supplier for interactive video for Snapchat and we’ve been whitelisted for Twitter for many years. Recently we announced our partnership with Facebook to help bring interactive videos to Facebook and Instagram too.
While embedding your WIREWAX video onto your own owned and operated websites, blogs and mobile apps is still a big part of where these videos are consumed, a large majority of the distribution destinations for our users’ videos are now Instagram Stories, Twitter posts, Facebook embeds and more. I’m sure they will eventually offer their own tools but while their size and current commitments make it difficult for them to innovate and move quickly, we’re plugging that gap in the meantime.”
How has lockdown created an increased demand for your services?
“During 2020 we saw entirely new types of users coming to our platform. Corporate comms, staff training, onboarding, etc. are just some of the new ways interactive video is being adopted at an eye-watering pace.
Don’t forget, all the staff that were once confined to restrictive office web-browsing policies or unable to view video during office hours due to fear of disapproving glares from peers or management have now flooded the market for video consumption. Millions of those who were once prevented from engaging with video for the majority of the day now account for the massive increase in video consumption throughout the day. Because of this and the demand for new content to be available, content creators have looked for ways to make video stand out, for video to work harder or to give existing content a new lease of life while creating new content was challenging.
Businesses now need to reach customers almost entirely remotely which is only going to be effective if you communicate with a medium that is as close to an in-person experience as possible. How do you turn that experience into something that has the mechanics to engage, entertain and provide a seamless pathway to success? Only interactive video can do that.”
Where do you see the future of interactive video & WIREWAX going?
“We always say; ask yourself this one question — will video become more interactive or less? Of course it’s a rhetorical question but there’s no doubt that the market appetite for interactive is growing rapidly. And that hunger is being driven by ever more demanding viewers and consumers.
As for WIREWAX as a business and an offering — if the last two years are anything to go by, we expect things to continue to grow quickly. There is so much more interactive video can do beyond what we have today which we’re excited about exploring and we’re also driven by a passion for providing tools to help video creators and make those videos as effective as they can possibly be. So watch this space.”
