Interactive Video Content Poised to be Online Marketing’s Next Big Thing

With high speed internet, more powerful computers that can handle web pages loaded with all manner of content, and boundless bandwidth all the norm throughout much of the modern world, video has increasingly become a prime method of online advertising delivery. Web pages at highly trafficked sites frequently autoplay one or even more video ads, and video advertising has become ubiquitous on just about every site which hosts videos of any kind.

However video ads can often prove annoying for web visitors, more so than fairly non-intrusive text ads. They often preempt video content the user is trying to watch, which causes them to have to wait and raises their ire in the process, or otherwise annoys them with the randomness of having a video start playing on the page they are looking at. This can cause an immediate disconnect with the viewer and turn them off from ad content they may otherwise have been interested in.

Two startups are hoping to change the way companies can advertise through video content by offering a new way to reach the video-watching masses; not by pushing their ad on them before their video, but by embedding their content directly within the video itself. And while that may seem just as intrusive and annoying to the viewers, the results are showing there is actually much less disconnect and far greater click-through rates via this format.

The companies are Fuisz Media and Pulpix, and each delivers their ad content in a slightly different way. Fuisz, which has already managed to snag major clients such as Nike, Wal-Mart, and Target, directly identifies items within videos, and overlays those items with links to purchasing and other information when they are hovered over by the user. If the user is not interacting with the screen at all, the overlays remain hidden and do not disturb the viewer.

Pulpix on the other hand discreetly displays bonus content related to the videos off to the side of the video. The bonus content links remain transparent and unobtrusive until clicked, while other content can be displayed after the video has ended its playthrough, directly engaging the viewer with a call-to-action related to whatever they’ve just seen.

Both methods are designed to work with all manner of video playback standards, including YouTube and DailyMotion, as well as with different ad servers, as well as being mobile device compatible. With click-through rates of as high as 20%, the new interactive ad delivery methods may well revolutionize online advertising and offer a high-quality way to tap into the growing and higher-spending video-watching market.