The hit show Mad Men took America by storm when it premiered in 2007. Audiences were captivated by the fashion, makeup, and hedonistic lifestyle of Sterling Cooper’s ad executives. But for marketing professionals like us, the show’s portrayal of The Golden Age of advertising held our interest. It’s fascinating to compare the dawn of brand identity and voice to today’s marketing, driven by tech and unique customer interaction. Here are a few examples of modern-day interactive content that would puzzle Don Draper but equal big wins for the companies that do them well.
Interactive Content: Product Demos
When the consumer market became a mostly online experience, brands had to find ways to replicate the experience of a tangible in-person interaction virtually. Enter interactive product demonstrations. One of the best examples of this is in the fashion world, an industry that relies heavily on physical senses.
The more digital storefronts popped up, the greater the need to solve the main drawback of online shopping: the inability to try on clothes before purchase. To address this pain point, many online retailers use virtual fitting software like the one created by Style.Me, which allows customers to input their weight, height, and general measurements and see a simulation of how a garment would look on them.
Major fashion brands like Temperly London and Gucci use virtual try-on tools to accommodate customers, increase conversions, and reduce the number of returns that often plague e-commerce apparel sites.
Virtual Reality Marketing Campaigns
Volvo fully embraced the power of VR marketing and reaped the rewards. Concerned by the lack of consumer interest in Volvo cars, the iconic brand decided to drum up interest with its Volvo Reality App. The app allowed anyone with a smartphone or Google Cardboard VR set to test drive the Volvo XC90 through a virtual mountain landscape. With the app’s photoreal CGI and a proprietary 360-degree VR camera, the test driver can get a panoramic view of their surroundings and the car itself, exploring its features and capabilities just as you would during an in-person test drive.
Volvo’s VR strategy was a success. The app was downloaded 40,000 times, and 34,000 people requested updates on the XC90’s release. When the car hit the market, it sold out in two days, indicating the potency of thoughtful VR marketing for consumer confidence and publicity.
Social Media Competitions
Brands can make the most of their social media presence through interactive competitions. Although the idea is nothing new, the competitions have upgraded and require more user interaction.
For example, Goldfish’s #GoForTheHandful Duet on TikTok challenged users to hold more Goldfish than the 301 record set by NBA star Boban Marjanović. Whoever beat his record and had the most creative duet would become the Official Goldfish Spokeshand and win a year’s supply of Ggoldfish. The competition garnered nearly 13 billion views on TikTok and likely resulted in an uptick in sales since the competition required actual Goldfish.
A similar contest cross-promoted by Yeti and Traeger Grills is an example of how competitions don’t just increase impressions and interaction but also result in user-generated content that the brand can then repurpose how they want. This campaign required users to tag Yeti and Traeger in an Instagram photo of their bar-b-que spot, resulting in around 1,000 branded posts they could repost on their platforms.
At Savy, we regularly use social media competitions for our clients as part of our ongoing support strategy. They don’t require any special software or marketing budget and typically garner great engagement!
Interactive Marketing Gamification
Gamifying the customer experience through something as simple as an online quiz can help brands in more complex industries connect to their end-user in an accessible way. Take, for example, a personality quiz created by the biotechnology firm Stemcell Technologies, which needed to raise awareness for the products they submitted to a virtual immunology conference.
Designed specifically for scientists, “Which Immune Cell Are You?” players answer a series of fun questions determining the cell reflecting their personality. The interactive gamification strategy was such a hit NPR covered it–proving that out-of-the-box marketing works for even the most high-level, industry-specific companies.
Interactive Content Ads
In the past, Ads were something that happened to someone. Today, advertisements can be engaged beyond viewing or hearing. FTX Games demonstrated this when promoting their video game, Narcos: Cartel Wars, on the App Store. Users could play a few demo rounds before being prompted to download the app.
Another example of interactive ads is Dorito’s foray into voice ads on Pandora, which opens with the appetizing sound of crunching Dorito chips and asks the users questions they can answer with their voice. Pandora’s AI feature customizes the remainder of the ad based on the answer. This strategy eliminates the passive listening or viewing model and creates an easier way for the customer to learn more about the product.
Rely on Savy’s Proven Interactive Content Marketing Techniques
As veterans of the digital marketing industry, we’ve seen countless iterations of marketing trends come and go. What allows us to wade through the hype is in-depth market research, which helps us identify strategies relevant to your brand and impactful to your specific audience. Ready to make your marketing budget and ROI go further? Get in touch with our team!