Interactive Consumer Insights

Trend - Brands are incorporating tactile elements into billboards and posters to create immersive, multi-sensory experiences. From textured surfaces to interactive materials, these physical formats invite touch and smell, transforming passive ad spaces into memorable, hands-on brand encounters.

Insight - As consumers grow increasingly desensitized to purely visual, screen-based advertising, tactile displays offer a powerful way to break through by engaging senses of touch and smell—emotionally resonant and memory-linked triggers. Therefore, by introducing physical or olfactory interaction into public media, brands can spark moments of surprise, curiosity, and deeper cognitive imprinting while encouraging organic sharing of these novel encounters.

Trend - Brands are taking to social media platforms to launch interactive campaigns that encourage users to post unique content to enter. These post-based campaigns are intended to start wider spread trends where consumers boost the reach of the campaign far beyond its original audience.

Insight - When looking to enter into online marketing, particularly through popular social media or video-sharing platforms, brands often find that traditional marketing methods, such as pushing banner ads or pop-ups, are not as effective as they once were. This is in large part due to the live, ever-changing culture of social media platforms adapting to reject typical corporate engagement. To subvert this challenge and better connect with modern audiences, brands are launching interactive campaigns.

Trend - Brands are creating passive pop-ups, such as billboards or signposts, that beget consumers to engage with only a brief action. These are more engaging than regular billboards while not requiring much time from consumers. Additionally, brands do not need to staff these pop-ups, thus reducing costs.

Insight - The average person living in a major city faces hundreds of advertisements a day. To this extent, most simply filter out regular ads, leading to brands not leaving a lasting impression. While some brands try to launch full-scale pop-up events that invite consumers to explore a detailed activation, not all consumers have spare time for such activities, leading to brands finding a middle ground for pop-ups that beget enough interaction to leave an impression, but do not intrude on daily schedules.

Trend - Postcard-making workshops are becoming a popular feature at pop-up events, offering guests a creative, hands-on way to connect with the brand. These interactive sessions allow participants to create a tangible, personalized product that delivers a message and introduces a new brand to the recipient.

Insight - Consumers seeking unique shopping experiences are increasingly drawn to events that facilitate personal connections with brands and encourage sharing the experience with loved ones. In response, brands are designing pop-ups that allow consumers to create personalized keepsakes for those in their lives and invite these individuals to experience the brand. By focusing on consumers' desire for shareable moments, brands can attract an audience that values community throughout the product journey.

Trend - Brands are launching platforms that automate media and customer outreach campaigns with AI. These platforms streamline lead detection, determine the optimal method to reach out, and send the message at an effective time. These enable AI marketing for brands without technical backgrounds.

Insight - Digital marketing continues to grow in competitiveness each year, with more businesses, channels, and voices reaching out to customers each day. In this competitive sector, businesses continually search for a tool that can give them an advantage over competitors. Businesses prioritize freeing up worker time for more intricate tasks, automation of simpler tasks, and reduction of expenses. These businesses are gravitating towards AI platforms to automate a large range of marketing tasks.

Trend - As metaverse platforms gain popularity, various brands are integrating virtual out-of-home (VOOH) ads into their campaigns. Like traditional out-of-home advertising, VOOH formats consist of billboards and signage. However, with VOOH, these ads are on display in completely virtual worlds.

Insight - While the metaverse provides new opportunities for direct-to-you marketing, the kind of ads associated with these strategies can feel invasive and overwhelming for consumers. Because of this, brands are testing out VOOH ads, as these formats mimic the passive style of real-life billboards and signage. In doing so, they are catering to consumers' desire for less intrusive digital advertising while introducing a novel — and appropriately "meta" — tactic for capturing attention.

Trend - Streamers are experimenting with Connected TV technology (CTV), which leverages QR codes, content overlays, and second-screen prompts to allow viewers to instantaneously shop the products that they see on screen. This includes products seen in commercials as well as those featured in actual shows.

Insight - Across industries, e-commerce integrations are becoming the norm, making efficient online shopping near ubiquitous. Not surprisingly, consumers now expect similarly streamlined solutions within the TV space. In particular, those that enable them to own the products that they see on screen and do so in as little time as possible. As a result, streamers are introducing interactive ads that cater to consumer expectations while also offering brands a low-funnel marketing tactic for driving conversions.

Trend - Cannabis companies are adding interactive, gamified elements to their branding and product offerings to increase their approachability in the new market. These gamified elements create a sense of playfulness and add entertainment value to cannabis products.

Insight - The cannabis industry is gaining traction among young consumers, including Gen Z and Millennials. The two tech-savvy generations are increasingly searching for products with interactive and entertainment-based products. In response to the consumer desire for gamified entertainment, cannabis brands are including interactive components in their products and business models.

Trend - Brands are turning to content subscription services like OnlyFans to market their products during the stay-at-home era. While popular with creators and influencers, fashion brands, media publishers and others are just entering the game with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and more.

Insight - Consumers are spending more time at home now more than ever due to the ongoing global pandemic and this is causing many to increase their online consumption. Turning to the Internet for anything from shopping and entertainment to socialization and work, many are becoming aware of the ubiquitous and accessible nature of digital platforms. Nostalgic for the exclusive experiences that they might have been privy to prior to the pandemic, consumers are looking to feel special by demanding limited content.

Trend - Viewing sports in-person at the arena, stadium, or track is still largely off-limits for most leagues. These restrictions have significantly reduced many brands' ability to reach consumers, prompting a surge of branded at-home experiences that replicate the live events. These include tailgating kits, home stadium experiences, and arena-specific food delivery options.

Insight - The rituals of attending a sports game are often seen as a crucial element of enjoying the experience, and many loyal fans are looking for ways to preserve these practices while at home. These rituals are viewed as important to the consumer as it allows them to create emotional connections with their peers and maintain their social identity. Brands that offer products and services that replicate the traditions of fandom in a way that can be shared on social media enable consumers to maintain—and promote—their cultural identity.