Session leader name: Arti Kuthiala

Key participant names: Allen, Ben, Celine, Pierre-Yves, Mark, Mike, Wibe, Nate, Erik, Arti (leader), Maud (script)

1. Discussion points using examples of ads

Preliminary: What do you think about Interactivity, Video, Advertising ?

Allen: it's important to be able to click through ad and consume/purchase the item

Erik: The ad clip must be responsive, and the user should be able to cut it quickly.

Ben: video = entertainment, interactivity = informative

a) Subservient Chicken

Link: http://www.subservientchicken.com/

Arti: Very successful ad. The Internet users interacted with this ad a lot, shared it with friends …

Erik: This ad was viral probably because it is a novelty. If we were to do it now, we would have to reinvent the concept.

Mike: It encourages people to play with it

Main Points:

1. Novelty can make an ad viral. Innovation is required to attain success.

2. Not mentioning the brand make end-users intrigued and willing to play more with the ad

b) Friends' clothes ad

Link: http://www.unitedvirtualities.com/demo/shoshmosis_friends/expandable_banner/

Allen: Does not direct the user directly to the web page to purchase the clothe, which is an issue as it forces the user to go through multiple steps to buy the item.

Maud: Like the ad because it is interesting to be able to know the brand of actor's outfits and eventually buy them

Mark + Erik: Be able to see information about the clothes is interesting

Celine: Love to get info about clothes that characters of favorite shows are wearing

Erik: Interesting to engage users with more information about the product

PY: Would be nice to interact with the ad in order to win a free episode of the show

Main Point: Interactivity should allow the end-users to get information about the advertised item and eventually have an easy and quick way to purchase it.

c) Snowflakes

Link: http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/

Arti: Simpler online video ad. It is not obvious what the ad is for.

Erik: This refers to "the River" ad (German) where end-users can sign-on and populate the side of a river (with adding trees, flowers, etc).

Main point:

d) Stella Artois

Link: http://www.letranger-stellaartois.com/index.php

Erik: The ad should be more narrative when the end-user picks the wrong glass. However, the videos in the ad are very well shot, which is appealing to the end-users.

Mark: It looks like a video game, hence the end-user needs to have time to interact with it. Such ad works for people who have time to play.

Erik: The targeted audience for such ad can vary. It is then important to know the audience to target and the trigger that will push this type of audience to interact (incentive).

Allen: When the ad starts, it is not branded, which makes end-users curious and pushes them to interact. The brand is then displayed, so it is already a success even if the user does not interact with the ad. Users need to be interested in the product to interact.

Main points:

1. Such ad requires time investment from users, which may not work if the user does not have time to interact with it in a fast way.

2. It is important to target well the audience that will be willing to spend time and interact with such ad.

3. Also, it is important to find a way to attract the end-user to interact with the ad:

a. Using incentive

b. Using his/her curiosity by, for instance, making the ad not-branded

e) Samsung

Link: http://www.samsung.com/se/current/campaign/d600/index_en.htm

Arti: This is a beautiful ad, but pretty complicated and time consuming to complete.

Mark: It would be nice to be able to save the game and be able to go back on it later on to finish it as it is not something that can be finish easily and quickly.

Maud: The willingness to interact with the ad depends when this ad is coming up: if it is received in the middle of a movie, the user may not want to interact with it.

Erik: There is a big incentive up front here. The user does it to win the phone, which makes him/her willing to spend time on it.

Mark: This intrigue-based ad should be placed, for instance, as a complement to an intrigue movie the user is watching.

RT: To what extend the ad is appealing to the users to purchase an item from the brand?

Allen: It is appealing to the user when there is easy enforcement of the advertised item. In the Samsung ad, it is nice to go through all the functionalities of the phone and being able to use it in many different ways.

Erik: As this ad is time consuming, it needs to be very well targeted.

Mark: The user should be able to send this ad to friends and build a community of people to solve the clues.

Mark: This ad is a game like the one we can have on console. Unless there is an incentive, people rather play on their game console than with this ad …

Mike: Users are more likely to explore a real game, but it is different for game within an ad: we cannot expect too much time investment from users.

Main points:

1. It is important to provide the end-user with the ability to play with the various functionalities and features of the advertised item.

2. We cannot expect too much time investment for the end-user to interact with an ad, unless there is a huge reward out of it.

3. If the ad requires a lot of time to interact with, there should be a way to save it for later interaction.

4. Such time-consuming ad must be well targeted and at the right moment (i.e. not in the middle of a movie for instance).

2. Conclusion and recommendations

To recap the main points introduced in this session:

1. Interactivity should allow the end-user to get more information about the advertised item.

2. An ad shouldn't bee too much time consuming for the end-user, unless the user can win a big reward.

3. It is important to target well the audience that will be willing to spend time and interact with a time-consuming ad, and also to target well the time when the ad is sent to the end-user.

4. Also, it is important to find a way to attract the end-user to interact with the ad:

a. Using incentive.

b. Using his/her curiosity by, for instance, making the ad not-branded.

Also, regarding the end-terminal, interactivity is easier to apply on computer or mobile phone, harder on TV. However, there is a new-generation of young people who are very tech-savvy and who are more active in front of TV. These types of users may be the targeted audience for TV interactive ads.