Marketing Podcast Asks: Is Interactive Video Really The New Black?

I'm going to be upfront on this and say that the genesis of this post is a corporate press release by a company involved in interactive TV. (PermissionTV, to be exact.) So with my nose for BS honed from being host of The BeanCast, I assume bias on the numbers before we begin. But here are the numbers they proclaim anyway:

• More than two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) identified online video as a primary focus of their 2009 digital marketing campaigns, versus social media campaigns (41 percent), search (34 percent) and podcasts/webcasts (32 percent).
• In Q2 of 2009, more than half (52 percent) of respondents expect to be implementing or extending an online video project, whereas currently less than one-third (32 percent) are doing so.
• Nearly 60 percent of respondents consider interactive video experiences to be the next evolution for online video. Also, 62 percent believe that non-linear, interactive storytelling will become the most effective medium for marketers.
• Links to other videos is the most widely needed interactive capabilities for respondents, followed by graphic overlays, user comments and user-defined contents paths.
• Respondents expect their 2009 digital marketing efforts (33 percent) to be least affected by budget cuts, followed by traditional marketing (24 percent), tradeshows (21 percent) and guerilla marketing (14 percent).
• A majority of respondents (63 percent) are most likely to invest in a branded content/video destination next year.
• Viral video (39 percent) and interactive experiences (38 percent) follow as the second and third priority, while only 22 percent plan to invest in simple syndication.
• When asked how online video will enhance customer engagement, a vast majority (71 percent) stated it would help build brand awareness.
• Driving lead generation was the second largest objective (47 percent), followed by enhancing loyalty/retention programs (44 percent) and converting customers (41 percent).
• More than two thirds (64 percent) of respondents reported that strengthening relationships with existing customers and/or prospects is the primary goal of online video initiatives.
• When focusing on respondents from the traditional and digital/interactive advertising agencies, more than 90 percent are overwhelmingly confident in their ability to recommend online video initiatives to clients.
• Digital/interactive agencies expressed more confidence in recommending online video to clients compared to traditional agencies; however, traditional agencies claim more responsibility for driving online video initiatives than digital/interactive agencies.
• Biased, right?
  
  Well, despite this only a dolt would disagree with these facts. Why? Because brand managers love TV. It's sexy. It's cool. It's something that you can whip out to impress your friends at parties. And it works when scaled appropriately. It works really well.
  
  But, with audiences shrinking on broadcast, these brand managers are desperate to find an adequate replacement for their scalable branding efforts. So of course interactive TV is going to be big. It's got all the cards in it's favor and frankly, I'm all for the growth of the medium. However, I question whether marketers are ignoring opportunities by being so focused on "TV 2.0" rather than paying attention to what the word "interactive" could mean for them.
  
  While online TV offers the opportunity to blend the best of brand and the best of response, it does not encourage conversation as much as feedback. And as a younger generation matures -- a generation that has grown up on the assumption that they have a voice that deserves to be heard -- I believe that they won't settle on anything less than acknowledgment by and conversation with the brands that they support.
  
  Online TV certainly plays a role in this. People love to watch stuff. But when they are done watching, they go and talk about it. And that's the opportunity that can't be ignored. As Interactive TV grows, it needs to build channels for participating in the conversation in equal part to the effort to provide the initial message. Marketers needs to be both conversation generators and conversation participants or we lose the opportunity to win a customer.
  
  Notice I didn't say "...get a sale?" I said, "...win a customer." That's because the opportunity in building interactive TV the right way is that we may have a tool to better earn loyalty and engagement, rather than simply influencing a purchase. We no longer have to wait for a complaint to earn customer loyalty through our customer service lines. We have the opportunity to build it during all stages of the buying process, from consideration through purchase.
  
  This is truly exciting stuff, when you stop to think about it.
  
  So I ask: In your online TV plans, are you building the same old thing with a "buy now" button, or are you drawing customers into a relationship? It's worth pondering now before the medium is too big to change.