I was getting bombarded with advertisements recently, and started wondering if there was a way to make these stagnant, boring ads more entertaining. There is! There are interactive ads that viewers can play with while still receiving the message in the ad. It’s called interactive advertising and The Manifest from The Medium defines it as “anything that encourages the target audience to interact with advertising, marketing, or promotions. It turns traditional advertising into an activity that encourages the audience to do something, rather than view the ad passively”.
There’s a lot of cool things going on with interactive ads outside the context of digital marketing such as Coca-Cola’s drinkable ads; however, I’ll just be talking about it in a purely digital marketing context in this blog.
Everyone probably remembers those website banner advertisements that had minigames like “Duck Hunt” or “Tank Wars” a few years ago and they were kind of fun (the first time); however, recent developments in technology has made this way of advertising a lot more interesting. With augmented reality becoming more popular, these interactive ads can be integrated or use properties that exist in Pokemon GO and The Walking Dead Our World. This is one example of how interactive advertising is making marketing more interesting, but interactive marketing doesn’t have to be so elaborate or cutting-edge. Interactive marketing can also be something as simple as a spin-the-wheel for prizes game, contests, or surveys.
These types of ads contributed to the shift in digital marketing where one-way communication has evolved into a conversation, or two-way communication, with the target audience. This is a far more equitable way of interacting with target audiences if done correctly. A post on Short Stack says the 7 elements that could make interactive marketing happen well include relevancy, fun, design, ownership, virality, multi-channel flow up, and customer service.
One great example of interactive marketing being used properly includes LEGO’s Slimy Situation ads on Hulu. These were videos where the audience could choose the ending on how to save the town from a situation. Each ending played a different video that would save the town.
What do you guys think? Do you enjoy playing ad-games? Or are they more of a nuisance than traditional stagnant website banner ads? Please let me know in the comments section below.
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