Any Video Can Be Interactive — and Soon, They All Will Be

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Image: Mashable Composite, Getty Creative, tovovan

By Josh Dickey2014-07-01 22:25:07 UTC

We’re in the early days of interactive video, but it won’t be long before just about every clip you watch will include features that allow you to roll over items to buy, share or simply learn more about.

You can already spot a few new examples. IMDb’s just-launched X-Ray feature lets you roll over actors to reveal their profiles, and YouTube used VidCon to announce its “info cards” feature, in-video annotations that can be programmed to add context and click through to merchandising and crowdfunding campaigns.

SEE ALSO: Being a YouTuber Is Now a Real Business

That’s cool news for users, but even bigger news for brands.

Santa Monica-based tech company Fuisz Media has been working on something that makes this kind of interactivity massively scalable and available on any player. It is already in business with several companies, including heavy hitters like Nike, Target and Walmart.

Fuisz (pronounced “fuse”) announced a $2.1 million seed-funding raise on Monday, led by Metamorphic Ventures and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.

Using a proprietary algorithm to identify and track people and objects throughout the video, the Fuisz Media model creates item-level interaction in every frame. On the back end (not seen by the user), green boxes track items automatically; those boxes are hand-programmed to link out to their relative features.

From the user's perspective, it's as seamless as: See something you like or want? Touch it.

“The next phase of video creation and consumption is about actionable content, and we are very excited for Fuisz to continue to help brands and publishers with engagement and monetization,” said Metamorphic Ventures’ David Hirsch, who launched Google’s ad business with AOL’s Tim Armstrong more than a decade ago. “The Fuisz engineering team has built an innovative, scalable solution that turns any video into a two-way medium with the ability both to delight consumers and to please marketers — a huge feat.”

Founded by Justin Fuisz and in development for two years, the platform can process thousands of videos per day of any length. Fuisz and Cory Klippsten, the company’s chief revenue officer, tell Mashable that they expect interactivity to soon be an expectation with all forms of video. It’s just a matter of time before it becomes part of the workflow.

“As we scale, implications for the entertainment and advertising industries are enormous,” Fuisz said. “The ability to add interactivity quickly and easily to feature and editorial content provides boundless options for storytelling and monetization.”

Though Fuisz is, for the moment, focused on working with brands’ proprietary videos, the feature can travel across players, including YouTube.

You hear that, YouTubers? Just one more tool to help build your business.

Have you used interactivity in videos? Do you want more? Let us know in the comments.

Topics: Apps and Software, Entertainment, interactive video, Video, YouTube