Interactive Marketing : Types, Best Tools with 4 Popular Examples

Currently, static ads have lost their charm as they often go unnoticed amidst the overwhelming number of advertisements. It’s time for marketers to infuse creativity and interactivity into their marketing strategies to cater to ever-evolving audiences. 

Interactive marketing is one such strategy that initiates a communication process or involves user participation with the content.

To fully understand the meaning of interactive marketing, let’s break down its definition, types, benefits, and popular examples.

What is Interactive Marketing?

In simpler terms, Interactive marketing is a two-way marketing process that involves active consumer connection, engagement, involvement, and interaction. It is an extension of direct marketing and one of the fastest-growing disciplines in the modern business world.

The Journal of Interactive Marketing defines interactive marketing as -

  Also Check: Green Marketing

What is Marketing Interaction? 

Any exchange or engagement that takes place during the marketing process between a brand and its audience is referred to as a marketing interaction. Instead of only passively receiving content, it occurs when the customer chooses to actively engage with the social media post, blog content, or emails. 

Direct vs. Interactive Marketing

Direct marketing is a conventional strategy for connecting with consumers through direct marketing methods. It is a one-way promotional strategy designed to get an instant response from users. 

Conversely, interactive marketing is a multifaceted strategy that uses tailored advertising methods to establish a connection with consumers. The aim is to build an enduring relationship with the customers, rather than just selling the product. 

Benefits of Interactive Marketing 

The primary focus of interactive marketing is to educate and engage users as naturally as possible. It is more about creating interest in the product/services through interactive content that leads towards conversion. Interactive advertising offers multiple benefits over direct marketing, which are:

Creative and Unique Campaign

As the scope of marketing expands here, the interactive ads can be developed to be extremely creative, appealing, and converting. 

• Brands can get a first-mover advantage if they build interactive content or a video campaign 
• Businesses may receive special recognition for their exceptional interactive advertising campaign.

Boosts Engagement and Conversion Rate

Increasing engagement or conversion on advertisements has always been challenging for advertisers.

• According to studies, incorporating interactive ads into a marketing campaign improves user involvement by 52.6%.
• Doubles the conversion rate, and increases recall of the brand by 50%.
• Customers are engaged with the ad elements for a longer duration by clicking, swiping, choosing, or playing. 

Also Check: How to Boost Conversion Rates

Enhances Brand Value

Marketing is an essential part of branding that shapes the company’s value and future. 

• Embracing an interactive form of advertising can play a crucial part in achieving a genuine connection with the customers. 
• The brand positioning becomes better and may earn customer retention for a long period.

Highly Personalized

Create real-time, personalized advertisements that are tailored to the user's preferences, something that traditional marketing is unable to deliver.

• Interactive ads provide the scope for personalization through their dynamic feature; users can interact with some or all parts of the ad based on their preference.
• The ads have a much deeper impact on the user's psyche as they demand active participation in their ad journey. 

Greater Audience Insights 

The best part about using interactive content is that it provides advanced insights about the targeted audiences. 

• Allows collecting real-time data about users' interaction with the ads. 
• Marketers can easily understand how customers are perceiving the ad by analyzing the number of interactions. 

Types of Interactive Marketing

You can explore many interactive content marketing ideas and implement those that better suit your brand. There are endless opportunities yet to be discovered by advertisers when it comes to introducing interactivity into the marketing domain. 

Here are some commonly used interactive marketing types with exciting ideas:

1# Interactive video ads 

Video ads are highly engaging in nature, and adding interactive elements is the cherry on top. Interactive video content is 67% more engaging than normal videos we see on YouTube. 

The Idea is -

• A compelling interactive video series related to tutorials or how-to guides. It can demonstrate the use cases of the product with its link to buy at the end.
• An interactive live video stream where viewers can ask questions in real-time about the product/service. 

Also Check: Benefits of Interactive Advertising

2# Interactive Content

Users spend more time with the interactive content in the form of infographics, slides, or articles. The engagement rates of interactive content are 52.6% higher than those of static content. 

The Idea is - 

• Generating infographics and slides with clickable options to read more about the topics. 
• Articles or website content combined with animations and micro-interactions encourage users to stay on the website for a long time. 

3# Gamified and Shoppable Video Ads

Shoppable ads provide an opportunity to see the product details from the ad itself. Gamification brings more curiosity and engagement to the ads.

The Idea is -

• When customers buy a product, give them bonuses, points, and awards. The number of recurring users may rise as a result.
• Use the interactive shoppable ad to purchase an influencer's outfit by providing pricing information on the ad. 

4# Interactive Banner Ads

Interactive display banner ads are multimedia ads that use engaging elements to draw in attention and perform a task.

The Idea is - 

• Creating banner ads with fun elements like polls, calculators, questions, or CTA buttons is more impactful than a static banner ad. 
• A banner ad that demands participation from the users through scroll, swipe, click, or answer.

Also Check: Standard Banner Sizes Cheat Sheet

5# Interactive Email Campaigns

Interactive emails contain information that encourages participation from recipients. Emails with interactive information have a 73% higher open rate.

The Idea is - 

• Carousel images in the emails get more traction as users swipe through all the images.
• Attaching the SHOP NOW button with the product features and offers that send directly to the product page. 

6# Interactive Digital Audio Ads

Voice search is one of the future trends in digital marketing. Voice-enabled ads allow listeners to respond vocally to choose the desired options coming next. 

The Idea is -

• A voice-enabled ad that allows users to add products to their cart while they are listening to some music or a podcast
• The ad shows up when a user uses Alexa to learn about a Chinese restaurant in their neighborhood. 

7# Engaging Social Media Campaigns

Social media has the vast potential to outgrow any other interactive channel. Brands often come up with extraordinarily creative campaigns to engage with customers.

The Idea is -

• User-generated content campaigns where users have to post go viral like anything.
• IG Stories with product links, reposts, or polls increase engagement on the page. 
• Using personalization to cater to a specific audience based on their past purchases. 

Also Check: Perfect Instagram Story Sizes

8# Live Chats with Chatbots

Conversational marketing is on the rise; it helps users with their queries in real-time. Chatbots are an easy-to-use and customer-friendly feature.

The Idea is -

• Provide customized options so that users can choose what they want to know about in the live chat.
• AI-enabled chatbots give a human touch to the interaction, which makes it more trustworthy and genuine. 

List of Top Interactive Marketing Platforms

• KappaX: No code editor tool for creating scalable, shoppable video and gamified ad journey.
• Digitas: Offers integrated marketing with an abundance of creativity.
• ThingLink: Designs interactive content for the education, business, and marketing sectors.
• Adventr: Creates interactive 3D experiences for the games and entertainment niche.
• Smartzer: Interactive e-commerce videos for Instagram and TikTok.

Also Check: Best Interactive Video Software and Platforms

4 Popular Interactive Marketing Examples

1# IKEA Place App

• Technology: Augmented Reality through the IKEA App
• Vision: To give customers a feel of IKEA furniture in their homes. 
• Impact: 35% boost in sales and 20% fewer returns

2# Coca-Cola Vending Machine

• Technology: Artificial Intelligence 

• Vision: To analyze the supply chain through an AI algorithm

• Impact: 15% boost in the transactions and 18% less restocking required. 

3# Hyundai Voice Campaign

• Format: Collaborated with Spotify
• Vision: To engage customers in a fun way using a Spotify video campaign
• Impact: 1.6x higher brand recall and 9x brand preference

4# Burger King: Burn That Ad

• Technology: App-based AR technology
• Vision: To gain engagement and awareness about Burger King’s product by virtually burning competitors' ads. 
• Impact: Won Clio Awards Bronze 2019

Final Thoughts

Interactive marketing represents the future of digital engagement. Businesses that invest in developing meaningful, reciprocal experiences will stand out in crowded markets, build stronger relationships, and ultimately achieve better outcomes.