What are the Benefits of Creating Interactive Content?
On Sunday, 13th of February 2022, the 56th Super Bowl took place with the Los Angeles Rams claiming victory.
For those of us in communications, the American football takes a backseat to… the Super Bowl ads! Often described as the most expensive ads in the world and arguably a cultural phenomenon in certain circles, these slots offer a chance for companies to flex their creative muscles and produce memorable, epic adverts that live long in the memory.
This year, there was an incredible advert from Coinbase, who knocked the ball out of the park (to borrow a baseball metaphor) with their simple but highly effective ad. Their Super Bowl advertisement from 2022 is below. The advertisement is ingenious. Why, you ask?
Let’s start with the creative…
Firstly, the advert plays on nostalgia with the old DVD icon that so many of us remember from our childhoods hitting the corner of the screen. Secondly, the advert costs nothing to produce. It competed with over-the-top, expensive adverts featuring celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger and still managed to stand out.
Thirdly, and most importantly, the QR code on the screen offered the audience watching to go from idle spectators to active participants. The advert succeeded because it gave the audience something to engage with. Check out the following tweets to see what we mean:
Now, let’s move on to the numbers…
Interactivity is a key tool for advertisers and marketers.
By engaging with the audience, interactive content quickly stands out and creates a unique experience for viewers. Coinbase reported more than 20 million hits on its landing page in one minute ⬇️. Can’t argue with that, can you?
Interactivity generates a buzz from participants who then share their experience with social media posts. Coinbase saw engagement that was 6 times higher than previous benchmarks, according to Surojit Chatterjee, their chief product officer.
The tweet below speaks for itself… if Coinbase made this ad to increase engagement, whoever came up with this idea deserves a raise.
The advert gave Coinbase a competitive advantage due to the interactivity. Their app went from 168th to 2nd place on Apple’s App Store.
As mentioned above, celebrities were heavily utilised by other brands, but it’s fair to say they failed to achieve similar success.
The interactive aspect of Coinbase’s advert, along with its nostalgic creative, helped play a pivotal role in its success. The simplicity helped the advert stand out in the most competitive US advertisement event of the year.
Considering an interactive campaign?
Here at Appt, we have experience in creating interactive in-store installations that create unique experiences. We worked alongside It Moment, the design team for Hanglung Properties to produce two interactive, app-based light installations in shopping centres in Kunming and Wuhan in China.
In Spring City 66, Kunming, we developed an app which customers could access to change the lights on display in the installation. The app could be downloaded after following Hanglung Properties’ WeChat account and therefore increased their brand awareness and social media following while giving customers an immersive, interactive experience.
In Heartland 66 in Wuhan, we developed an app which used augmented reality. The app worked in a similar manner to the Kunming app, requiring the customer to first follow a WeChat account to download. The app produced creatures and light displays in augmented reality throughout the shopping centre to create an interactive story within the space.