Mark, great article as usual. I'd like to dig a little deeper on interactivity, as the largest chunk of respondents answered 5 out of 7 when stating they agreed interactivity would increase effectiveness. I wonder why they chose to rate that way and not higher? Simply defining 'interactive' video in the vague way this survey has done, I don't think - is really that helpful to marketers. After all, interactivity can mean so many things. For example, does it mean the video changes when clicking on it? Polls, links, browsing, filling out forms, highlighting, clicking hotspots etc? These are all forms of interaction but I doubt they all impact effectiveness the same way and for all videos. I also have to paint myself as a bit of a skeptic when it comes to the whole 'lean in' concept. Although many thought leaders in the space believe online video is lean-in, I guess I just don't buy into it as much as lots of folks do. People have been trained their entire lives to passively consume video content. While people are used to interaction on the web, I find that most folks still need some kind of a prompt to realize that interaction within video content is possible - this could be super overt, as in the YouTube click-to-buy ads, by throwing up calls to action within hotspots, by dynamically highlighting interactive portions of a video while greying out the rest, or by showcasing buttons or other elements in-video that do in fact shout that interactivity is possible. I suspect in 2-3 years' time this kind of prompting won't be as necessary, but for now I do think it's pretty much the only way marketers can prompt interaction effectively with video when serving it up to a general audience (e.g. not other marketers or specific demos or closed groups that have already shown a predisposition to interact with video) - other than actually telling a user - through audio - that interaction is possible.
Last, I found it interesting that this was a survey given to marketers, not consumers. What would be really interesting would be to see the results of a similar survey given to the folks that actually encounter video ads from the end user point of view.
Justin Foster Founder, Video Commerce Consortium Co-Founder, Liveclicker
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Last, I found it interesting that this was a survey given to marketers, not consumers. What would be really interesting would be to see the results of a similar survey given to the folks that actually encounter video ads from the end user point of view.
Justin Foster
Founder, Video Commerce Consortium
Co-Founder, Liveclicker