6 Interactive Advertising Examples: Going Beyond the Banner

Forget having consumers sit on the sidelines.

Interactive advertising delivers audience participation and engagement that creates a unique dialogue between your brand and consumers that’s fresh and exciting.

When compared with static content, an interactive advertising campaign gets up to double the audience engagement. And content like interactive video has been found to increase sales by as much as 14%.

Here are six of our favorite interactive advertising examples to illustrate the cutting-edge capabilities that are available for marketers.

1. Brain Games Playable Facebook Ad

Brain Games is a smash hit science TV show that’s a true pioneer in interactive audience engagement. It features a mix of challenges, puzzles, and experiments that blow viewers’ minds and challenge their perception to understand their own cognitive abilities better.

So it only makes sense that Brain Games would want to go all in on interactive marketing to excite its audience and build brand awareness.

For this marketing campaign, we sought to give users the kind of mind-bending experience they would expect from Brain Games natively in Facebook Ads. This platform is meant to give users an interactive preview of an app so they can test drive it before installing, however, we used it to create a playable game right within their Facebook feed.

And we’re not going to lie. It was a creative and technical feat. Mainly, incorporating each interactive element of art, music, and full game functionality into a tiny file limit on playable ads. So this is one of the social and digital campaigns where we had to really get creative.

More specifically, we went retro and featured a mix of pixel art and chiptune audio to create a one-of-a-kind interactive game that was fun and playful but without detracting from the user experience. It also worked well because the style helped save on file size to maximize the gameplay mechanics.

Say hello to The Brain Games Gauntlet.

In it, users can participate right from within the Facebook social media platform and see how they stack up against some of their favorite celebrities.

It was fun and stimulating, and this interactive campaign built a ton of buzz around the show. And it’s proof that using interactive ads is the perfect way to push a show without consumers feeling like they’re being advertised to.

2. Forensic Detective Game

The AR interactive ad market is experiencing ridiculous growth right now, with a 2024-2029 CAGR of 9.38%. And the impact of this interactive content is off the charts, with a staggering 70% boost in brand recall.

To promote Oxygen’s true crime show programming, we took AR to a new level with Forensic Detective: Inside the Crime Scene.

In it, players use AR technology to investigate a crime scene by looking through their smartphones. They sift through evidence like fingerprints, blood, and bullet casings to identify potential suspects and figure out who’s guilty.

We had a KILLER time with this interactive marketing campaign, which featured ground-breaking tools and room-scale simulations to make the game feel incredibly realistic.

For those who have always wanted to tap into their inner Sherlock Holmes, this game was a real treat.

Not to toot our own horn, but it reached #2 in the Entertainment category of the app store and 1.2 million cases were played. It also received multiple accolades like being ranked as one of PopSugar’s best mobile games of 2018 and was named as a Webby Honoree in Advertising, Media & PR: Augmented Reality.

3. Oak Island Dig Game - Interactive Banner

History Channel’s The Curse of Oak Island is one of the network’s most popular TV series and features a group of treasure hunters attempting to unearth riches on Nova Scotia’s Oak Island.

To promote the show, we took a similar approach to the Brain Games interactive ads campaign where we created a retro 8-bit game that captures the mystery and intrigue of being a treasure hunter, but in a fun, easy-to-play way that’s available to play desktop and mobile web browsers.

There’s plenty of retro charm to pull users in, and they get to bask in the adventure of a treasure hunt without having to worry about incurring the dreaded curse. Players uncover artifacts, avoid falling boulders, and dig for treasure in their quest to climb atop the leaderboard.

And to boost engagement with new players, we created an interactive, playable banner ad where users can get a quick taste of the game through a brief demo before deciding to take the plunge.

4. Runaway Railway AR Game

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway is one of Disney’s newest theme park rides that opened in 2020. It’s a wild, zany, whirlwind of a ride where physics cease to exist and 3D animation pulls riders into Disney’s over-the-top cartoon world.

Our goal with this interactive advertising campaign was to capture the same fun and excitement of the ride but at home. To deliver this, we again turned to augmented reality to merge the real world with the fantastical illustrated cartoon universe.

Behold the Runaway Railway Adventure Kit.

This AR game on the DisneyNOW app lets kids build their own worlds right from home, they can add props and set pieces like loop-de-loops, buildings, cones, trees, trash cans, or even ferris wheels for fully customized racing in their living room, bedroom, or driveway. In their augmented world, kids can collect things to use to buy more props.

We had a blast collaborating with ABC Disney and Disney Imagineering to create this game, and it shows how cutting-edge interactive ads have become.

5. VR Experience to Promote a Show

We’ve talked about two interactive marketing campaigns using AR to create a dazzling interactive experience. Now let’s talk about VR where we venture into full immersion with interactive ads.

In the TV series, Genius, The National Geographic Channel explores the lives of some of the most influential people in history, such as Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Aretha Franklin.

For this interactive marketing example, we partnered with The National Geographic Channel to explore how one of the greatest minds in history, Einstein, worked.

To accomplish such an ambitious feat, we pushed the boundaries of modern technology to allow users to go inside the mind of the genius himself, either with a VR headset or on a phone, tablet, or computer in 3D.

With this ground-breaking interactive advertising thought experiment, users experienced interactive storytelling through a mix of 2D illustrations and 3D environments to truly bring the mind of Einstein to life.

This innovative VR experience proved to be the perfect way to provide insights for inquisitive minds in a way that’s never been done before with interactive ads and earned us the 2017 Cablefax Digital Award for Virtual Reality Content.

6. Zeus the Mighty

The last of our interactive marketing examples involves our collaboration with National Geographic Kids to promote their children’s book, Zeus the Mighty.

The story is quirky and playful. It involves a pet supply and rescue center called Mount Olympus located in the legendary city of Athens… Georgia.

There the main character, an overly confident hamster Zeus, along with other rescued pets, believe they are actual stars of Greek mythology.

To promote the book through interactive ads, we created an epic kids’ game where players are introduced to Zeus and his pals and attempt to earn the highest score while collecting coins and extra lives along the way.

Besides delivering fun, fast-paced gameplay, kids are also asked multiple questions about Greek mythology at the end of each level that they have to get correct before moving on. So not only are kids thoroughly entertained but are also educated at the same time.

Also, we intentionally built the framework so that future stories can be integrated into the game as well to accommodate additional interactive ads.

More Interactive Advertising Ideas

By now, you should have a pretty good idea of the capabilities of interactive marketing. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Most of our examples were fairly involved and took a lot of careful planning and execution to pull off. However, there are plenty of other interactive advertising options that feature interactive media but are less complex and perfect if you’re just looking to test the waters.

• Interactive banners - Instead of just viewing a banner ad passively, interactive display ads can be expanded or hovered over to dramatically boost engagement.

  

• Interactive video ads - Video and graphic content can include clickable elements that allow users to learn more about a product and have visual eye candy that most static ads lack.
• Playable ads - The Oak Island Dig game we covered earlier that gave users a quick demo is a great example of a playable ad. Using this innovative approach, users can swipe and tap a mini-game directly within a display ad, blowing basic Google Ads out of the water.
• Interactive email marketing and content marketing - This can include interactive elements like polls and quizzes, customizable widgets, and mini-games to turn boring promotional content into a scintillating digital advertising experience.
• Interactive infographics - Use animation, clickability, and hovering over data points to make an interactive infographic come to life.

How to Make an Interactive Ad (Our Secret Sauce)

Whether it’s something basic like interactive image ads or video ads or something truly jaw-dropping like immersive AR/VR, there’s a formula that marketers should follow across the board to make an interactive ad pop and make consumers stop and engage.

First, figure out who your target audience is and what entertains them or fulfills their needs. Pair this with what you’re trying to accomplish with your interactive content. Are you looking to simply build brand awareness? Generate leads? Get conversions right out of the gate? What does your audience get out of this? Is it a tool they can use or something they will enjoy to play?

Next, choose your ideal interactive marketing platform. Where is your audience spending time? Are they scrolling Facebook, browsing the web, or scouring the app store? Is an interactive video ad your jam? Interactive social media display ads? Playable ads? Do you want to generate buzz and push the envelope with immersive VR and spatial computing?

Then, it’s all about execution and creating compelling content that hits its mark with each interactive advertisement. Easier said than done, we know. But we find success largely boils down to simplicity, beautiful aesthetics, and clear copywriting.

Finally, track, measure, and analyze the results of your interactive advertising campaign to see what’s working and what needs adjusting. Then, iterate, iterate, iterate until your campaign is firing on all cylinders.

Best Practices for Interactive Advertising

Not to sound annoyingly textbookish, but we’d like to share a few pointers to increase your odds of constructing an interactive marketing campaign that’s a stud, not a dud.

It’s simple. Whether it’s an interactive ad, interactive video, interactive social media, or any other type of interactive content, make sure it’s 100% on target with who you’re trying to reach.

Is it relevant? Will your target demo truly care? Does it scratch their itch?

Also, avoid falling into the trap of getting a little too bonkers, at least with your first campaign. We love pushing the boundaries but try to stay away from being needlessly complex with interactive ads until you get the hang of it. That’s only going to frustrate users and defeat the purpose.

Lastly, always stay on brand with interactive ads. Every piece of interactive marketing content you create should contribute to a close-knit, cohesive portrayal of your brand in terms of tone, messaging, values, and overall personality.

Wrapping Up

Dying are the days of just looking at ads as a detached bystander. And good riddance.

Your audience is bored to tears with traditional advertising and interactive ads can be the solution to dull and drab. By getting consumers in on the action, you can send attention and engagement soaring, getting them genuinely excited about your brand.

And what we love about this digital marketing strategy is that the technology is only in its infancy. It’s only going to advance and evolve to unlock golden opportunities for marketers that are ahead of the curve.