Last month, we predicted that interactive marketing content—specifically, interactive storytelling—would grow in importance in Q4 2015 and into 2016. In the next few weeks, we’re taking a closer look at the trend, and sharing actionable ideas for how you can incorporate interactive content into upcoming campaigns. Ready to try this up-and-coming content form? Read on!
Let’s revisit our earlier description of interactive stories:
“Great interactive content, whether branded or unbranded, makes use of graphics that viewers can manipulate, such as photographs that change as they are moused over or graphs that highlight particular data points or trends depending on where the viewer clicks. Interactive content frequently incorporates a variety of media, from text to audio to video, to tell one seamless story in multiple engaging formats.”
To be successful, interactive stories must be responsive to user engagement in a meaningful way. Consider the difference between a truly interactive story—one where the audience has agency in choosing how to interact with a piece of multimedia content—and something like a slideshow. The slideshow technically requires audience interaction, but it is not participatory in a meaningful way: the viewer’s role is entirely prescribed.
In contrast, great interactive content is compelling and responsive to user engagement, giving the audience power to drive their own experience with the content.
B2B brands are still just beginning to embrace interactive storytelling, but they’ve already got a strong handle on other forms of interactive content like webinars, ROI calculators and even quizzes. We know that B2B audiences respond strongly to storytelling in content, whether it’s in a white paper or a video series. So why not take the next step in audience engagement?
Join us next week for a closer look at the best unbranded interactive storytelling. We’ll show how you can inform your marketing with the success of these pieces, and share tips for how to build educational interactive stories for your brand.
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