Shoot the Bear? How Brands Use Interactive Video

How Brands Use Interactive Video Ads

Interactive video is a format that lets viewers control the outcome, perspective, or narrative of a video ad in real time. Interactive video ads give brands a layer of engagement unavailable on passive channels, making them especially effective for audiences with limited attention spans who expect to choose if, when, where, and how they interact with content.

What Is Interactive Video and Why Do Brands Use It?

Interactive video is a format that places decision-making power in the hands of the viewer. Interactive video is not a passive experience — it requires the viewer to make choices that shape the story or outcome they see. Interactive video is proven to inspire repeat views, because each choice a viewer makes can lead to a different result, prompting them to watch again from a different angle.

According to a 2014 Google study, users today want to ‘actively engage, deciding if, when, where and how they interact with brands’. The rise of social media, streaming TV, and YouTube has created an insatiable demand for on-demand media consumption, and interactive video suits this behaviour precisely.

How Have Brands Used Interactive Video? Key Examples

Several brands have pioneered interactive video formats at scale, each taking a different approach to viewer engagement.

What Types of Interactive Video Work Best for Brand Campaigns?

Brands are applying interactive video across several distinct formats, each suited to different campaign goals:

• Choose-your-own-ending: Viewers decide how a narrative resolves, as pioneered by Tipp-Ex’s Hunter Shoots a Bear campaign.
• Point-of-view selection: Viewers switch between character perspectives within the same story, as used by Coca-Cola’s Inseparable campaign.
• Product customisation: Viewers choose clothing, accessories, or styles directly within the ad, as seen in Madewell’s 2011 campaign.
• Geo-targeted and weather-triggered ads: Ads are delivered based on a viewer’s location and local conditions, used by UK clothing brand Very on mobile.
• Quiz and infographic formats: Interactive content including quizzes, championed by publishers such as BuzzFeed, and interactive infographics extend brand storytelling beyond video.

How Do Interactive Video Ads Drive Engagement?

The engagement mechanism in interactive video is empowerment. When a viewer makes a choice — selecting a garment, picking a character’s perspective, or deciding a story’s outcome — they become invested in the result. This investment drives repeat views and longer watch times.

According to Ceros, “The way we’ve told stories about our brands and products is changing, even if the stories themselves are not.” This principle underlies the shift towards interactive formats: the story remains the brand’s, but the viewer’s path through it becomes personal.

For clothing brands in particular, the ability to manipulate creative outcomes — choosing which garments a model wears, for example — lends itself naturally to interactive video, directly connecting viewer agency to product discovery.

Steps to Implement Interactive Video in a Brand Campaign

1. Define the interactive mechanic — choose-your-ending, POV selection, or product customisation — based on your campaign goal.
2. Map out the decision tree: identify each choice point and the content that follows each path.
3. Keep decision windows short and gratification fast. Madewell’s five-second choice slots demonstrate that brevity sustains attention.
4. Ensure each path reinforces the core brand message, even if the narrative outcome differs.
5. Plan for repeat views by giving each path a genuinely different result worth experiencing.
6. Consider hyper-localisation triggers such as geography or weather to deliver the most relevant version of the ad to each viewer.

Frequently Asked Questions About Interactive Video for Brands

What is interactive video in advertising?

Interactive video is a video ad format that allows viewers to make choices — such as selecting a story outcome, switching character perspectives, or customising a product — that directly affect what they see. Unlike passive video, interactive video responds to viewer input in real time.

Which brands have used interactive video successfully?

Tipp-Ex, Coca-Cola, and Madewell are among the most cited examples. Tipp-Ex’s Hunter Shoots a Bear campaign accumulated over 22 million views. Coca-Cola’s Inseparable campaign allowed viewers to experience a mother/daughter relationship from multiple perspectives. Madewell let viewers style models in five-second decision windows.

Why does interactive video increase engagement?

Interactive video increases engagement because it transfers control to the viewer. When viewers make choices within a video, they become personally invested in the outcome, which drives repeat views and longer watch sessions. According to a 2014 Google study, users want to actively engage and decide how they interact with brands.

Can interactive video be used for geo-targeted campaigns?

Yes. UK clothing brand Very uses interactive video delivered to mobile audiences based on local weather conditions, demonstrating that interactive formats can be combined with real-time data triggers to serve hyper-relevant content to specific geographic groups.

How does interactive video fit into a broader content strategy?

Interactive video sits alongside quizzes, interactive infographics, and newsletters as part of a broader interactive content strategy. As advertisers and publishers agree, the stories brands tell are not necessarily changing — but the ways viewers move through those stories are evolving, with interactivity giving audiences a more personal and memorable experience.