It’s a bit of a no-brainer. Campaigns that pack an interactive punch are far more engaging, and ultimately effective, than standard images or videos. Running interactive campaigns not only encourages your consumers to get involved, it also allows your marketing team to unleash their creativity and deliver more gripping stories as a result.
Join us as we delve deeper into the benefits of taking the interactive approach to PR campaigns, and some of the best examples of tried and tested strategies.
Interactive Videos
Using videos as the main strategy in your PR campaign is a great way to get your desired message across, even without that interactive aspect. It’s easier and quicker to communicate via video, or visuals in general, than through plain text – so just imagine what you can achieve when you also include a Call to Action (CTA) within these videos.
Whilst the CTA can simply be a prompt to subscribe for more content, or even encouraging viewers to participate in conversations about the video in real time, there’s far a far more interactive approach that can be taken. Videos can have multiple choice questions that are clickable on the screen, taking you to the next part of the story or leading you to the conclusion.
Or, there’s also the more immersive route, which can transport the viewers into unbelievable landscapes through the use of 360-degree video technology – which has proved to be one of the most popular marketing options in this digital age.
For example, in 2016, the masterminds at Oreo created a fully-interactive Willy Wonka inspired fantasy land, to promote their latest flavours. This consisted of an immersive 360-degree video that allowed viewers to explore this new world via a controller in the top left corner of the screen. This meant that everyone’s experience of the campaign was unique, and user-led, therefore adding more interest.
<iframe width=”658″ height=”378″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/ENau7AkayN8″ title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>
Interactive Storytelling
Storytelling can take on many forms. It can be difficult to keep an audience engaged throughout a long-form article, so introducing an interactive element such as infographics, videos, clickable maps and other visual aids can help to break up the story and keep readers following along.
One of the most effective modes of storytelling within a campaign is undoubtedly the clickable map option. And as the festive season is approaching, this can easily be translated into a virtual advent calendar.
One of the best festive examples of this is Paddy Power’s latest interactive Bingo campaign, which features a click-through journey across iconic monuments around the world, led by Chippy, a man-elf hybrid. Once logged in, players are able to visit a new location each day and click to reveal a unique offer consisting of bonuses and cash match offers. The promise of the next day’s offer is guaranteed to have players coming back for more, as they eagerly wait for their next deal.
Interactive quizzes and polls
Another form of interactive marketing that always gets a reaction from the audience is quizzes, surveys and polls. Not only can this form of content get visitors interacting with your site, you can also use them to guide your audience onto your final CTA.
For example, BuzzFeed are experts at luring in their target audience with personality quizzes that are themed around what’s popular right now. Back in 2013, that was Game of Thrones. So, the BuzzFeed marketing team put together: “Which Game of Thrones character are you?” and it went viral soon after. Audiences love to learn something new about themselves, and will be more likely to share your content and respond well to that final CTA. BuzzFeed always leave the option to share the quiz to your social channels, therefore encouraging your like-minded friends and followers to click through their promotional quiz too.
Whilst our list isn’t exhaustive, these visual and interactive strategies are a great way to get your audience involved and encourage them to listen to what you have to say. And, after all, is that not what PR and marketing is all about?
