Click Here to Laugh: How Interactive Campaigns are Making Marketing Less Static and More Engaging

We’ve all been there - you’re checking out your favorite website, app, or watching a video when everything grinds to a halt and suddenly you’re forced to endure another annoying and intrusive ad for some brand you’ve now vowed to never do business with entirely out of spite for interrupting this 10 hour cat video you’ve been thoroughly enjoying. What the hell were they even thinking? But what if ads could actually be, dare we say it, fun?

One popular avenue to make your messaging more enjoyable is an interactive ad campaign - the marketing strategy that turns eyerolls into engagement and continued growth for your brand. But what exactly is an interactive campaign and how do you get in on the fun? Don’t touch that dial, we’ve got everything you need to know comin’ right up.

Campaigns Just Want to Have Fu-un

Think of an interactive campaign as the cool, friendly kid at a party - everyone wants to engage with them. Instead of just standing around staring at the art on the wall, the cool kid invites everyone to play Truth or Dare. Obviously your tactics are a little different with a campaign, but the point is that you’re inviting your audience to participate and enjoy themselves which makes them more likely to remember and engage with your brand in the future.

Just like the popular kid, interactive campaigns are often what draws the audience to the party. Instead of interrupting a different experience, the whole purpose of the visit is the campaign itself. Let’s check out just a few examples of successful campaigns run by some folks you might know.

Burger King’s Whopper Detour - In 2018 Burger King used an interactive ad campaign to drive customers to their restaurants and give them a deal at the same time. Using the customer’s location through their app, Burger King offered 1¢ Whoppers to customers who were near a McDonald’s. The only catch was that you had to order it through the app - so BK not only increased downloads of their app but drove foot traffic to their locations. 

If that doesn’t ring a Bell, maybe you’ll recall this one:

Taco Bell’s TacoBot - 2016 was the year and Taco Bell was leaning heavily into exploring new ways to market themselves. One innovative idea they had was TacoBot, a virtual assistant similar to Siri that would engage customers through Twitter (now X) and Facebook Messenger by providing recommendations, answer questions, or even help customers place orders. Interactivity was 100% the name of the game and using this new (at the time) technology was an incredible way to get customers engaging and talking about their brand.

If you’re still not convinced on the appeal of interactive campaigns, here’s another example, Because You’re Worth It:

L’Oreal’s Virtual Makeup Try On - Still going today, L’Oreal’s Virtual Makeup Try On lets customers engage by doing exactly what it sounds like; try on their makeup virtually. Through their app or website, customers can see precisely what a product they’re considering would look like, making the purchasing decision not only easier, but a heck of a lot more fun.

These are all pretty high tech ideas, but your campaign doesn’t have to be and the big brands don’t always go that route either. Sometimes low tech is the perfect way to build something:

Lego Ideas - Everyone knows “the customer is always right.” Lego took this idea to heart when they introduced Lego Ideas, which lets customers submit their ideas for sets that should be developed and then voted on by other customers to see which ones make it to production. This is the pinnacle for engaging an audience in a way that is low cost with high return.

How Do You Get In on This?

Big budgets aren’t a requirement to get in on the fun. If you’re trying to come up with some fun ways to build an interactive campaign that won’t require smashing your piggy bank, here are a few low-cost ideas that can bring high-returns.

Quizzes/Polls - People have always been infatuated with quizzes (particularly if you need to know What Kind of Tacos to Order Based On the Most Recent Netflix Movie You Enjoyed) and polls. You can create a fun, brand-related quiz that points your audience in the direction of one of your products. For example, a coffee shop might have “Your Perfect Coffee Blend for Your Morning Routine.” 

Interactive Videos - Create a brand-centered “Choose Your Own Adventure” video where your audience can use polls to determine the next steps in your story. Perhaps your handbag boutique could demonstrate a “day in the life” of your product - allowing the customer to select how a day progresses and showing off different products that match the tasks. You can show off multiple products in different settings and how they fit the varying settings based on the choices made by the audience.

Gamification - Even something as simple as a “spin to win” wheel or a randomly selected winner from comments on a video can get people excited and engaged. Give your audience a small discount, freebies, or a limited time offer for engaging and you walk away the real winner. It’s like a game on the midway at the fair without the creepy clowns.

Conclusion

Interactive ad campaigns aren’t just a trend (although we can help you with those too: click here for 2024 Marketing Trends), they’re a powerful tool that can turn your audience from passive viewers into active participants. When you do them right they create a symbiotic relationship that can make your brand engaging, memorable, more approachable, and even a little bit more fun. So go ahead and click here to laugh, your audience will definitely thank you for it.