Zappos is leveraging its recently announced partnership with Overlay.TV to produce interactive video ads for Nike products on its retail website.
Though Zappos has hopes to deploy the technology across its entire site, Nike shoppers are the first to enjoy the benefits of the clickable videos, which are fully integrated with the site's e-commerce back-end. The videos are able to reflect the current inventory status of products - such as whether they are out of stock or discontinued - as well as promotions and special offerings.
Viewers can shop directly from the videos, which can be shared on blogs and social network profiles. Eventually Zappos will offer such "Engagement Pages" for additional brands, along with the ability for customers to record video testimonials and make product reviews.
Zappos is among a growing handful of companies experimenting with variations of interactive video technology in ad campaigns. The technology's ability to connect with customers - in some cases embedding click-to-chat directly in video - has prompted companies to explore offering these ads across multiple venues from cable to mobile to the web.
Watch, then Click-to-Chat
In an example of click-to-chat, NeXplore launched a public beta launch of NeXplore Ads version 2.0, a search ad platform that creates paid-search ad campaigns using text ads, branded images and video commercials with built-in, real-time consumer-interaction capabilities such as video chat, call scheduling, email and instant messaging. The tool lets consumers watch a video commercial, then click to begin a real-time video chat with a contact center agent.
The click-to-chat model appears to hold some promise for retailers. Though a live voice is still the most preferred form of customer service among online Americans, a recent study by ATG found that 67% of US consumers say they would value the option of having both a live text chat and a live voice conversation to get the help they need when making online purchases, writes MarketingCharts.
Coming to a Cable Station Near You
This past summer, Mixpo, an online video ad technology company, and National Cable Communications partnered to provide locally targeted interactive video ad campaigns. The offering leverages Mixpo's video advertising platform's online display inventory, adding interactivity and geo-targeting logic to drive local response.
On the iPhone
Most recently, this month AdMob introduced a new Interactive Video Ad Unit for the iPhone. The technology enables consumers to browse websites and view additional videos while the original video is playing. Behind the scenes, AdMob is creating multiple bitrate encodings of each ad's video files and then dynamically streaming the most appropriate file size based on the devices' EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi connection.
