Best 15 Interactive Video Examples to Learn From— With Key Takeaways!

Video marketing strategies have completely changed the way consumers and brands interact with one another. Nowadays, video is one of the best ways for companies to attract customers, engage with them, and keep them interested enough to eventually persuade them to make a purchase. However, a new player has emerged that has the potential to change the game for traditional videos, and those are interactive videos.

In this article, I’ll go over this innovative video format, its advantages, and how you can use it to draw in viewers, differentiate your business from competitors, and give your audience an unforgettable experience. To make things even better, I’ll break down 15 interactive video examples so you can watch and learn from the best.

Let’s go!

What Are Interactive Videos?

An interactive video is a form of media that allows users to engage with the content within the video itself. It’s called “interactive” because viewers can manipulate certain elements of the video, changing the direction, storyline, or characters in the way they want to through a variety of tools.

In traditional videos, you only have a limited series of functions: clicking “play” to start, pause, rewind, fast forward, or restart. On the other side, interactive videos allow users to manipulate the content by clicking, dragging, scrolling, hovering, gyrating, and performing other digital actions—just like you’d do with a video game or a website.

These clickable areas are called “hotspots,” and they allow viewers to modify the storyline with their actions to create a nonlinear narrative, go through different paths, and obtain new possible outcomes.

Sounds fun, right?

What Benefits Do Interactive Videos Offer?

Videos are very flexible and can be designed to support businesses no matter what industry they’re in, what goal they’re aiming for, or what audience they’re targeting. In the case of interactive video production, these are its key benefits:

• Increase the audience’s engagement. Interactive videos create an active viewing experience that makes it less likely for viewers to get distracted, feel bored with what you’re displaying, or abandon your content.
• Gain a better conversion rate than many other types of digital ads. While banner ads, Google display ads, and YouTube annotations have a click-through rate of around 1%, interactive video outperformed them all, converting at a rate of more than 11%. This probably has to do with the fact that interactive videos are more attractive for viewers to engage with and, thus, can keep their attention until the end.
• Achieve better performance analysis of video content. Interactive video allows for much more effective metric tracking because you can gather data, follow the clicks within a video, analyze the various routes taken by users, and much more. Understanding how and when viewers interact with the various components of your video will help you improve your video content and better understand your customers.

What Are They Used for?

Interactive videos seem like a new, groundbreaking development, but if we take a closer look at the entertainment industry, specifically video games, we can see that interactive content has been around for some time.

The difference lies in the fact that, today, companies can use them in many different ways:

• Creating interactive interactive pieces as part of your educational video production efforts, often in the form of quizzes, can be a way to teach customers about your brand or industry. These videos are valuable educational tools because they demand active engagement from the audience, as they have to pay attention to the data in order to answer the questions within the video correctly.

• Interactive shoppable videos work well for explaining features through product videos or bringing back discontinued ones. For example, while you’re showing each product, there could be a clickable section that directs viewers to your e-commerce for further exploration. That way, viewers get the chance to interact with your offerings and learn more about them the moment they see and feel drawn to them.
• Interactive training videos are a great resource to improve your employee skills or bring new hires up to speed. Creating awesome training videos is all about helping the audience put their abilities to the test and solve real-world problems that could arise in the workplace—and interactive videos can achieve just that.

Best Interactive Video Examples to Learn from 

While these videos can have various benefits for your brand’s marketing efforts, they’re such a recent format that it can be hard to gauge how all of this plays out in real-life applications.

So, to better understand how and why these videos are used, here are some of the best 15 interactive video production examples, with key takeaways on what makes them so effective.

1. Lifesaver – Don’t Fear Asking Obvious Questions

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The purpose of this quiz-style video from Lifesaver is to teach viewers what to do in an emergency, particularly when someone close to them is experiencing cardiac arrest, collapse, or choking. The videos are intended for an audience that lacks a medical background, and the interactive elements allow them to learn first-aid actions like back blows, abdominal thrusts, and other first-aid essentials. 

As you review the quiz, some questions seem pretty obvious and easy to answer, like whether or not you should avoid the broken glass on the floor. (Hint: The answer is yes.) However, this is a great practice for successful healthcare video production because it motivates viewers to keep going. Moreover, since they have to make an active choice, it’ll be easier for them to replicate it during a real emergency.

2. IKEA – Tell a Story

(Click here to watch the video)

This piece developed by IKEA is a great shoppable interactive video example. Throughout the entire piece, the viewer can hover over IKEA’s homeware products to gain more information about them What’s more, the “shop now” call-to-action guides viewers to the company’s e-commerce, and if they aren’t interested in making a purchase, they can return to the place they left off in the video and continue viewing.

Even if interactive videos are an innovative format, don’t forget that video content is all about storytelling. Here, IKEA tells the story of a couple’s room in a creative way, by making it seem like it’s a David Attenborough documentary. What’s more, by showcasing the room as though it were the native habitat of a species, IKEA can give life to its products in a new, engaging, and entertaining way.

3. Nike – Offer New and Unique Experiences 

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In this Nike interactive video example, viewers have to choose an outfit for a photo shoot promoting the new Air Max shoes. This creative advertisement has a stylist walking the audience through each item and providing realistic depictions of how the clothing might appear in real life. It’s very effective because it allows viewers to feel like they’re shopping in real life, choosing their favorite clothes and thinking about how they’d combine them.

Offering fresh, original experiences to your audience is at the core of most video marketing companies‘ efforts. For Nike’s audience, picturing themselves as members of the styling team and making decisions on how to customize and design outfits for a photoshoot can be both entertaining and insightful.

4. Google – Showcase Your Service in New Lights

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Tilt Brush is a virtual reality app developed by Google to create 3D drawings. To promote it, the tech giant commissioned six acclaimed artists to paint in real-time using their software, and then created this interactive video where you can choose one of them and watch as the artist starts filling a black space with their talent.

As the viewer, you get to experience how the images begin to take shape from any angle by altering the perspective of the artist in action. So, this piece serves to perfectly demonstrate how the new drawing tool works in a new, original way that helps viewers gain a deeper understanding of what it has to offer.

5. SBS – Engage New Senses

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This beautiful, inspiring piece was created by Australian broadcaster SBS, and it follows the story of Angelina as she tries to learn Marra. The animated interactive video takes us around her remote village in Northern Australia, showing elements from the landscape like rivers, houses, and animals, and making the viewers repeat how these words sound in that language.

This video reminds us that interaction is more than adding buttons and hotspots to your videos. In fact, you can make the most of interactive videos by engaging your viewers with sound and listening features. After all, most people watch videos today on cellphones or computers, which have microphones incorporated. 

Following this example, consider how your audience is going to watch your videos and think of all the elements you can take advantage of to make your interactions more interesting and unique.

6. Cisco – Harness the Power of Gamification

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This quiz developed by Cisco may be a little old, but it helps us better understand the early stages of interactive videos and see how much they’ve evolved over time. 

The educational video in question was designed to test the viewer’s understanding of English phrases with comprehension questions to promote Cisco’s online teaching resources. 

But what makes it one of the best interactive video examples around is how it leverages gamification, which is all about translating the logic of video games into education. For example, adding interactive elements like the hears at the top, which resemble a game’s point system, can make the learning experience more fun. 

On top of that, these elements help keep the viewer’s attention and improve comprehension of the topics at hand. Even if you don’t offer educational services, you can use them to test the viewer’s knowledge about your brand or better educate them on the unique benefits of your product.

7. Stand Up for Safety –  Take Advantage of the Viewer’s Curiosity

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This interactive piece instructs viewers by identifying potential safety hazards, and it serves as proof that you don’t need a big budget to come up with an effective video. 

Here, just by displaying clickable danger signs when the main character is engaging in a potentially dangerous habit, the video teaches viewers how to stay alert and avoid them. In order to discover why some common practices may be dangerous, viewers need to click on each sign. 

Without interrupting the flow of the piece, this interactive video example exploits the viewers’ curiosity by making them reach out to discover the dangers hidden behind seemingly harmless habits and how to avoid them.

8. The Jungle Book – Build Hype Around a New Product

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Nowadays, customers want to be involved in the development process of the products and services they consume. So, for the launch of the 2016 remake of the classic Jungle Book movie, Disney released this stunning interactive video that features a movable split screen. It allows viewers to alternate between scenes from the real film and the pre-computer-generated imagery of the same recordings. 

This interactive piece shows the complicated process animation companies go through to develop a live-action film like this one with so many animated animals that must look realistic. It also encourages viewers to discover more about the plot and the cast with clickable hotspots that reveal more details.

In a way, it’s setting up a treasure hunt for viewers to actively interact with the content and learn more about all the work behind the film. Interesting engagements like these entertain viewers and help the company build hype around its upcoming film.

9. Cloneable Customer Service – Train Your Workforce

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Here, we have an interesting training interactive video example. The goal of this piece is to empower employees to gain control of their conversations with clients in situations with high tension. So, the video features Joseph, a customer with a difficult scenario that viewers need to solve by choosing different approaches to his requests. Depending on their answers, the conversation and the outcome will differ. 

Interactive videos can be especially effective for training viewers on key soft skills like communication and customer service because they allow you to display real-life scenarios and how they can develop depending on the viewer’s choices. Here, the direct approach makes it easy for learners to feel empathy and interest in Joseph’s situation and better prepares them for what they’ll encounter once they start meeting with clients in person.

Check out our list of training video production companies that can help you develop a video like this one for you!

10. Ford – Appeal to Every Audience

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In 2022, Ford came up with a creative interactive video “series” to promote their new Ford Ranger PickUp truck. The story follows a main character from waking up to going to sleep, and in between, you get to choose what he does with his day, specifically, how he uses his Ford Ranger PickUp.

This particular interactive video example is one of the best because Ford can target more than one audience segment by taking advantage of the way interactive elements allow viewers to follow their unique paths. 

For example, nature lovers will probably choose the adventurous path, where Ford displays the truck’s large space to place a bike without any problem. On the other side, for family-oriented viewers that follow the storyline of picking up your kids from school, they display the new review camera you can use to park your truck perfectly in the city streets. This allows them to appeal to every potential audience segment with just one video.

11. RVO – Gain Feedback From the Viewers

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There are few things more complicated than Nethederland’s bureaucracy, especially if you’re new to the country or don’t know where to look for help. That’s why RVO designed this interactive piece that explains how people can apply for a grant within their province. Viewers can click on each part of the document to learn what that section is about and what they need to submit to get the grant they’re looking for. 

When the video concludes, RVO asks viewers to rate it from one to five and fill out a form explaining their choice. Since these videos are a recently novel format, there is not much research on them. So, asking your viewers for feedback can be crucial to improving your interactive video production and learning how to educate them better about your product or service.

12. Mended Little Hearts – Let People See the Results of Their Donations

(Watch this interactive video)

Mended Little Hearts is a charity for children with congenital heart disease, and its recent campaign, ‘Give a Fuller Life’, depicts a day in the life of 11-year-old Max. Each time the viewer donates money, Max’s life gets a little brighter, highlighting how a small act that involves just a few clicks online can dramatically transform a kid’s life.

When marketing for charities and special causes, one of the most important things to ensure its success is to let donors see the effects of their contributions. After all, people donate not only because they want to help others but also because seeing them happy thanks to their efforts helps them feel good about themselves.

However, this can be quite a challenge when you’re dealing with sensitive topics or when you simply can’t show the beneficiaries. That’s why taking advantage of animated characters can be a great way to sort out these difficulties and increase donations for your organization with interactive videos.

13. Chelsea FC – Show Your Behind-the-Scenes

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It’s every football fan’s dream to tour the grounds of their favorite club and spend some one-on-one time with their idols. Chelsea knows that very well, and that’s why this video tour of CFC uses interactivity and a first-person point-of-view to give viewers an immersive experience through the VIP areas of the team’s training grounds.

This is a great interactive video example because it shows how you can offer enhanced behind-the-scenes experiences for your viewers by taking advantage of this format. You cannot tour every Chelsea fan around the training grounds, but you can make them feel like they’re talking with the players in real life.

Providing customers with something interesting and unique like this will win them over for life and encourage them to stick with the team through thick and thin.

14. Honda – Make Use of Branching

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The Honda Civic is a well-known family car; however, with their campaign “The Other Side,” the brand also publicized itself as a great getaway vehicle. This video aims to show the different realities for one Honda driver: In one, he’s a carpool dad picking up his kids from school. In the other, the father runs from the police at lightning speed. The viewer could switch between realities by holding down the letter “R.”

Here, Honda makes use of the branching technique, which entails offering a user a choice of multiple content pathways to create a personalized experience. I don’t think Honda was trying to encourage drivers to use their new Civic as a getaway car. However, this video shows the audience that there’s more to Honda than a familiar car and that you can fill it with adventure, depending on from which side you want to drive it.

15. Buzzfeed – Make Use of “Luck”

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Another king of interactive videos is Buzzfeed. This news outlet became famous for its hilarious, sarcastic quizzes, and now they have started developing them as interactive videos. In this fun tarot quiz, the reader asks viewers to click on the deck of cards. Depending on the time they take to do that, a different one with a different reading will come out. 

You can use “luck” in your interactive videos and set up different outcomes depending on which time the viewer is watching the video, how long they take to answer, or whether they’re watching from their phone, computer, or TV. This will allow you to come up with unique experiences for the viewers that surprise them and make them feel as if the content is just for them.

Need an Interactive Video? Yum Yum Videos Can Help!

As you’ve seen, interactive pieces are an innovative medium that is changing the marketing industry. Many big brands are exploring this new format; however, smaller businesses and charities are also jumping into new ways to make content. 

For a starting business, though, interactive video production may be a challenge a bit too big to take on your own. Thankfully, we’re here for you. At Yum Yum Videos, we believe in creating customized video content that works as a bridge connecting brands and people. That’s why:

• We start by putting our clients’ needs first! We will work tirelessly to produce the most engaging and unique video for you, regardless of the message you wish to convey to your target audience!
• We recognize that no two businesses are alike! We work hard to make sure that our videos highlight that distinctive. To that end, we think that although there are many components in our recipe for creating the greatest animated advertisements and videos, the key is paying close attention to the little things in ways that convey your brand’s voice and personality.
• However, we don’t forget that no one understands your company better than you do! That’s why we believe in listening to our client’s feedback from start to finish. That’s the best way for us to make the final product better.

If you want to, you can see our video production process. However, we think that in matters of video production, nothing speaks better for ourselves than our own work, which you can check here:

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(Animated explainer video by Yum Yum Videos)

And if you want to ask us any questions at all, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!

Wrapping up

Interactive videos are more than some hotspots in a lineal piece and a few questions the viewers must answer to continue watching. They’re actually all about planned and thoroughly designed interactions with your content to offer unique experiences that entertain the viewer and leave a positive, distinctive impression of your brand in their minds.

The benefits of these types of videos are great: giving the viewer the choice to take the video in a new direction compared to just watching the video from start to finish changes the way viewers interact with the content, opening new ways to build relationships between customers and the brand and foster loyalty.

And today, more and more businesses are giving them an opportunity. If you don’t want to be left behind, now is your time. Partner up with your favorite animated video production company and give it a go!