What’s in the video?
February 22nd, 2008 | Published in Marketing
Remember a situation when you were watching a cool movie, a music video or just a short clip on YouTube, and you saw someone in the video wearing the coolest pants, putting on the best song or using a really awesome product? Well, maybe you, as a consumer, don’t actually remember so many of those situations, but advertisers definitely would love to be able to link stuff in a video to a place where you can buy it. Think of all the product placements in movies. What if there was a way to directly link them all to more info and an online shop?
Ottawa-based Overlay.TV officially launched about a week ago, and they promise to do just that. The Overlay.TV platform offers a simple way for publishers to link images within a video to marketers’ websites. That cola can you saw in a music video and the shirt that the singer was wearing can be made clickable and linked to coolcola.com and madstylezz.net, for instance. The platform works with all major browsers, including Internet Explorer and Firefox, and seems very easy to use. The overlays look a bit bulky, I think, but the system works.
I am a little sceptic about how many consumers will be instantly thrilled about being able to click on things seen in a (low quality, compressed YouTube) video clip, but marketers and e-commerce sites will probably find Overlays a useful tool. I’ll keep an eye on this concept for sure.
About the author
I’m an interaction designer, information architect, strategist and creative lead, multi-skilled and versed in creative, strategy and technology. I’m also known as an electronic musician who has traveled the world from Tampere to Tokyo. I earned my experience as art director, concept designer and creative director in Scandinavia, praised for its award-hoarding digital agencies, then went on to work in the Middle East, the United States, and Canada. Currently, I work as Interaction Design Director at R/GA as well as a freelance interaction designer and information architect. My work has been awarded with national and international awards.
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