Intriguing Finds

A lot of experimentation with video advertising on the Web is going on these days. There are interactive overlays, contextual text ads, video-in-video, ads that take over the whole screen, and little icon bugs that crawl along the bottom. Nevertheless, the plain video pre-roll that mimics a traditional TV commercial remains the most popular, even though everyone knows it sucks.

Today, an Israeli startup called Innovid (see earlier coverage) is doing its part to help advertisers move away from the pre-roll with technology that allows for things like virtual product placements inside videos and turning entire surfaces into clickable canvases.

In the demo video above, for instance, you’ll see different advertising effects projected onto the walls of a room, from a Pong game that you can play to a RSS feeds running across the baseboard as a ticker to funny creatures whose eyes you can move with your mouse. (The video above is not interactive, but you can check out the interactive features at Innovid’s homepage).

Innovid also has an ad gallery that shows other types of clickable ads its technology can create, such as interactive product placements, video billboards (basically another video running in a frame on a wall), bugs, overlays, and hotspots. Frankly, I don’t find these quite as exciting as the clickable canvas approach.

The product placements just look cheezy and unconvincing, at least in the old 1950s video Innovid chose to demo the feature. But turning an entire surface inside a video into a 3-D interactive canvas could be highly engaging if done properly.This would definitely work for pure video ads that encourage interaction. It would be harder to pull off for a Web video show, but would be possible if a video was shot with enough blank spaces where ads could be inserted. The technology could also be used eventually as a way to add an interactive layer to any video. However, the company is focusing on advertising opportunities.

“Aah honey, where is the remote?” says Jane as she sweeps her hand over the couch.

“Found it!” she exclaims.

“Nope, sweety that’s not it” says Bob rousing up.

I can see such scenarios happening around all households when this thing is mass marketed. Who comes up with these gadgets ?

Constructed of a soft, flesh-like gel, the remote appears cold when off. Once turned on, however, it seems to come to life. A soft light emanates somewhere from within as the center of the device begins to slowly rise and fall, mimicking the tranquil motions of breath. Left undisturbed, the remote will slumber peacefully. Buth should a human hand approach, sensors inside alert it to the imminent touch. It stops breathing, grows rigid – the light from within is extinguished.

Not that the idea of the material isn’t cool, but could it not be used for something other than a remote … like a paper screen that can be rolled up and snuck away for example.