Interactive Video How-To and Examples

I talked awhile back about personalized video and how it could be (is) the next big marketing medium. The benefits of personalized video are obvious, you'll get better quality personal information and it is very viral.

The key here is personalization and interactivity. The internet took a turn a few years back with the rise of social and interactive networks. From that point on, the user was given control, and thats the way it going to be from now on. I showed in my previous post how successful personalized video is and now, I want to show you how easy it is to pull off.

Here are two videos i made when first experimenting with how flash could be used to manipulate video:

The best part is that i made each of those videos in under 15 minutes.


All you need to do it upload your video in flash:

1) File -> Import -> Import Video




(Note: I had to rerecord my video as a wmv because i could not get avi to work properly)


2) Then choose:





"Embed video in SWF and play in timeline" is what allows you to manipulate movieclips on top of your video. Now what you could do with this is map certain items to sync with the video and possibly even change those items at run time. You could insert personalized images, text, etc.

Google Docs for Desktop

So while wandering around the Print OnDemand Expo in Boston I bumped into a small Google booth. So in conversation I was told that Google will be releasing a desktop version of Google Documents and Spreadsheets. Furthermore, they said you can expect to see a new link showing up on your Gmail page...
I was told it will be something similar to Microsoft's Sharepoint. Where was this information 6 months ago when my company chose Basecamp over Google Apps. Although, i do love my Basecamp.

In other news from OnDemand 08, some cool stuff is going on in the world of variable data publishing. Lots of cool web-to-print apps as well as InDesign plugins. Its also cool to see an array of PURL solutions on the market, however I am still not impressed. Every solution I've seen is limited in one way or another; bad reporting, limited functionality, no security, etc.

However, overall it was a good time.

Personalized Landing Pages 2.0

So its no news that a personalized landing page as a response portal to any kind of direct marketing campaign can increase response rates dramatically, but where's the next step up?

Well it seems as if there are multiple cross-media technologies emerging from the web to help engage, interact and even entertain the user, therefor increasing conversions. People have seen XMPie and other related products do cool things with people's names and putting them in the picture. But what if the user could change their name at runtime. Furthermore what if the users name wasn't in a picture, but in a short movie. This is the future of PURLs as a response portal and will be a hit in the social media world. Already I was pointed to a website for a TV Show on FX and I was amazed at what they had done. Here is a PURL someone made for me. I like everything about it, from the page looking like a blog to my name being inserted into the movie.

Now here's something my own company put together. Basically I wanted the user to be able to interact with the flash movie in real time from outside of the movie itself via the web-form. Using javascript, I was able to insert the users name into the newspaper at runtime and its had an amazing response. People need a break from their every day activities and these fun side trackers give them this opportunity, so both the user and the company win.

So I'll say it now and say it loud. Get Interactive, Engage your Audience and become successful.