by Basho Mosko | Apr 3, 2014 | How-Tos and Tips, Mobile and HTML5
How would you react if you heard that mobile video viewing has increased by over 700 percent since Q4 of 2011? Shock, amazement, disbelief? “Yes to all of those!” was my reaction before downloading the Ooyala Global Video Index Q4 2013, which reports that year over year, time spent watching video on tablets and mobile devices is up an astounding 719 percent since Q4 of 2011, and up 160 percent since Q4 of 2012.
Brands and agencies aren’t sleeping on these statistics, and we’re regularly fielding questions about how to optimize Interactive Video for mobile devices. Want to know how to engage viewers on all devices? We’ll provide a framework for how to think about Interactive Video (IV) on mobile here. Read on.
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by Basho Mosko | Feb 27, 2014 | In the Media, Mobile and HTML5
This article was originally posted on Adotas.com on February 26, 2014.
I’m a huge fan of live sports in general, but the drama and excitement of the Olympics takes it to another level altogether. Every two years I’m delighted by the privilege to spend two weeks watching the best athletes on Earth competing against each other in sports I will never experience myself (Skeleton – really?). Yet with limited hours in the day and only basic cable to quench my thirst for Olympic drama, I turned to the Internet to fulfill my wishes.
I have to hand it to NBC for building such an immersive site, and I love that the first button I saw on the page was Play, but navigating the content unfortunately left something to be desired. The amount of premium, jaw-dropping video clips available was enough to make any sports junkie drool, and yet the experience of finding and navigating between those clips nowhere near matches the grace and dynamism of the content itself. I wasn’t able to click on some of the previously aired events, clicking on the sidebar of past dates only worked intermittently, and the cycle of redundant commercials every few minutes made it almost torturous to watch.
This got me wondering about what my online experience would be like while watching the Brazil Summer Olympics in 2016, or what it’d be like watching the next Winter Olympics online four years from now.
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by Erika Trautman | Feb 4, 2014 | In the Media, Mobile and HTML5
This article was originally published by Entrepreneur.com on February 4, 2014.
Companies whose products many of us use daily – Dropbox, Twitter, and, of course, Facebook – all sprouted from tiny startup seedlings. And while these all serve as great success stories, the truth is that most startups won’t see this level of achievement. It’s no secret that for every Instagram, there are hundreds of other apps that fail simply due to oversaturation. And yet that fact hasn’t slowed the startup buzz machine.
But the promise of the next big startup win may be losing some of its luster, leaving both investors and brands to look beyond the glam and glitter, instead focusing on business fundamentals and results.
David Berkowitz, CMO of marketing agency MRY and AdAge contributing writer, postulates in his article, “Why Brands Will Focus Less on Startups in 2014,” that lack of results, along with clutter and PR, is the reason why startups’ relationships with brands and agencies will fade like a tired high school fling this year. And I couldn’t agree more. In 2014, brands are looking for results, not hype.
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by Jen Bergen | Jan 29, 2014 | Company News, In the Media, Mobile and HTML5
If you didn’t get enough of Cinemax’s original action series “Banshee” last year, you’re in for a treat. We’re thrilled to announce that Rapt Media is once again powering the interactivity for Cinemax’s “Welcome to Banshee” video microsite for the show’s second season.
Using Rapt Media’s Interactive Video Solution Suite to support the revamped digital microsite, Cinemax delivers viewers an unprecedented and immersive dive into more than 74 background “Banshee” clips that amplify the season’s story. Each viewer will drive their own interactive experience of the content by following characters, storylines, and symbols, to piece together a unique narrative.
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by Jen Bergen | Dec 6, 2013 | Mobile and HTML5
There’s nothing new about the ever-increasing rise in mobile traffic; analysts have been talking about the “death of the PC” for years now as mobile devices become more and more popular. But this holiday season is marking a significant change for mobile – specifically in the area of online shopping.
With Cyber Monday now a few days past, the numbers are starting to roll in, proving that mobile shopping integration is no longer just a nice “extra” feature. According to figures by IBM Benchmark, online shopping on Cyber Monday was up 20.6 percent compared with the same time last year. Of that number, 17 percent came from mobile devices.
According to USA Today, Walmart, a company with a mobile-friendly online store, saw 55 percent of its Cyber Monday traffic come from mobile devices. Nearly half of Walmart’s sales came from mobile devices, which means that with 2014 in the wings, it’s high time that companies take a serious look at their mobile presence and meet their customers where they’re spending more and more time: on mobile.
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by Erika Trautman | Dec 5, 2013 | In the Media, Mobile and HTML5
This article was originally published on Adotas.com on December 5, 2013.
Video is no longer just a lean-back experience. With the touch-heavy world of mobile devices, video is becoming more of a lean-forward, interactive experience. Digital video can support user interaction through gestures, voice, touch and clicks, and brands in the know are implementing Interactive Video (IV) projects into their marketing campaigns.
These brands are seeing remarkable results in terms of engagement with customers and brand awareness, and their viewers become more informed buyers likely to make a purchase.
But some brands aren’t. According to the recent Forrester report “Move Beyond Awareness with Interactive Video,” most brands’ video campaigns just aim to inform as many potential customers as possible about a product. Most companies think of online video advertising as just an extension of TV advertising, simply posting their made-for-TV ad on YouTube.
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