How one brand leveraged video to transform passive consumer encounters into active ones

While many advertisers utilize pre-roll video, a survey conducted by Engine Insights, commissioned by ORC international, revealed that 90% of people skip pre-roll video ads. With pre-roll ads essentially being a passive medium, marketers must seek more engaging approaches that invite consumers to interact with brands and products more directly.

“Creating more visibility around how TV commercials and static video can evolve for the better and how interactivity can make that happen opens an entirely new arena for advertising,” said Jay Wolff, senior vice president of partnerships at KERV. With that in mind, brands still have misconceptions about implementing interactive video — such as that interactivity is just a “nice to have,” QR codes don’t work, and video is only for brand awareness. 

Video isn’t just an awareness play. It also occupies the mid-and lower-funnel performance arena, and dynamic video elements like QR codes are helping brands achieve significant results. 

Identifying the video elements that invite consumers to engage with brands

“Brand marketers should be thinking about how technology and automation can turn passive viewing into active viewing,” said Wolff. “Static ads are now the legacy move, while interactivity brings a new dimension to the consumer journey.”

For example, to connect with targeted audiences, raise awareness and purchase consideration, Sambucol — a leading CPG brand focused on immune support — wanted to identify more innovative ways to drive video performance and capture intent for its products. It needed to bridge the gap between static video ad placements and commerce. 

The goal was to utilize dynamic QR codes, which are easier to scan than static QR codes (and can be edited in real-time), to drive users to landing pages and provide direct-to-retailer experiences via video. 

Combining commerce and interactive video elements, the automated interactive video solution allowed Sambucol to hit all its campaign goals. The approach provided a direct path for consumers to purchase its Black Elderberry products from their preferred retailer and served dynamic video assets to CTV devices, leading consumers to a chosen landing page for further engagement. 

“In the end, there’s no downside to making video or commercials interactive,” Wolff added. “The solution for marketers often comes down to the partner they are working with, and working with a trusted partner can yield significantly better results in video activations.”

Implementing interactive video into reach and retargeting campaigns 

When working to implement interactive video, some brands focus most of their attention on the video asset itself, ensuring it’s as perfect as possible. In an age when high-quality video technology has been increasingly democratized, that’s only the first stop for marketing teams on the path to audience engagement. 

“Whether it was shot by an iPhone or a TV producer, static video is simply not as effective or engaging as interactive video,” noted Wolff at KERV. “Brands should pass their video assets by an experienced video partner and ask, ‘What would my ad look like if I wanted to turn passive viewing into actionable, truly measurable viewing? How do object-level insights and interactivity help me drive intent, achieve better data and push ROI?’”

Object or product-level insights provide data on the specific items depicted within a piece of content. For example, if a user engaged with or purchased a product, the object-level data can inform how to better serve those customers in the future in a way that actionable, deterministic data can drive.

By utilizing object-level technology and instant commerce solutions, Sambucol extracted much more value from video, including data by retailers.

The CTV ads with dynamic QR codes had a completion rate of almost 98%, and the sequential shoppable video ads delivered to users who had either scanned or completed the CTV ads had a CTR of 3.79% and an interaction rate of 12.88% — exceeding the benchmarks by 658% and 1617%, respectively. 

Sambucol’s campaign utilized standard video assets with dynamic QR codes, delivered on premium ad inventory across major streaming services. A user was then retargeted with Sambucol standard video assets enhanced with a proprietary shoppable technology based on consumer opt-in scans. This enhancement was separated into three different units — one to Amazon, one to CVS and Walgreens and another to Target and Walmart — and all optimized toward interaction metrics in the videos without interrupting the brand creative or the user experience.

Additionally, consumers were 144% more likely to select Sambucol if they interacted with these video assets than if they had never been exposed. The target demographic was also 135% more likely to choose Sambucol if they had interacted with these dynamic videos when compared to consumers who had been exposed to the brand. 

How to find the right partner to make everything come together

Video can be an intimidating medium, and partnerships are increasingly offering an avenue to production, deployment and measurement. Among the characteristics advertisers are looking for in the space, flexibility and proven results often top the list. 

“An ideal interactive video partner should be nimble, tech-forward, trusted, proven and results-oriented,” said Wolff. “A great first step is to ask a prospective partner for case studies, sample insights, benchmarks and full transparency, then see how they turn static video into something more mid to lower-funnel.” 

To turn passive consumer interactions into more active ones, brands leverage interactive video elements to invite customers to engage with them. Interactive video isn’t just for expanding reach; it’s also a valuable tool for retargeting campaigns and helps make brands more memorable, increasing the likelihood of being at the top of the shopping list. 

Sponsored By: Kerv