Jul
17
2008
This past February the Ottawa, Canada-based company Overlay.TV launched its interactive video service that let’s user add clickable links to videos. This means companies can link products images in videos back to their website to sell products. (Thanks to Mark Blevis for blogging and podcasting about a recent Social Media Breakfast he attended at which Overlay presented).
I took a look at some of the examples on the Overlay site and my initial thoughts are that they are on to something huge with the idea of making video interactive but, like every tool, this won’t be for everyone or every product.
For one thing, when you click a link, the video stops and a big pop-up box appears in the middle of the screen with the product information. Even though you’ve asked for it, it’s very jarring and intrusive – just like old school ads. It would be great to have the option of the video continuing and the pop-up box being smaller or off to the side.
Then there’s the issue of what product is being sold. Impulse buy products like chocolate don’t lend themselves well to this format because my guess is that people generally aren’t looking for these when they’re watching a video. (Now, this kind of immediate interactivity for podcasts could do wonders with the mobile impulse buy market).
Still, Overlay.TV is just beginning and, like so many other tools, it may be people using it in unexpected ways that reveals its real potential.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
[...] Clickable, interactive video by Robin Browne [...]
July 5th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
a person a million with regard to creating this particular