What is it about?
Apple has been an absolute master of interactive sales stories for years. Usually the brand creates an interactive at the launch of its latest and most expensive flagship model, but this story is about the - by Apple standards - very affordable new iPhone SE.
What's between the tags?
This is a textbook example of a sales story from the highly regarded Hogwarts School of Interactives. Handsome 3D intro that immediately shows the assortment, brilliant tone in the copy as we find almost exclusively with Apple, clear buy button right from the start at the top right. We're not beating around the bush: you're here to buy. And then: scroll. We go dynamically to an overview of all the assets, which are then elaborated one by one. With integration of moving images and nicely conversational copy. With the occasional limited but effective choice stimulus for the user. For variety, we get a horizontal scroll or a zoom in or out, plus lots of nice graphics. And always there is that perfect interplay between development, design and copy. For those who thought that online should always be snackable: make sure to check the enormous length of this story. So that users think afterwards: we have to watch this again. Which they then do.
What is it about?
Genius idea: this is a vulgar marketplace disguised as a super cool scifi story. KPR is a metaverse world in which users first create an avatar and then join the fight as a 'Keeper' to preserve the new world. This "collective narrative" is funded by the users themselves, who buy and sell all sorts of "collectibles," with crypto coins.
What's between the tags?
This story first lays out a simple storyline and then elaborates it with great finesse. Essentially, it's an ordinary scroll story based on 3D images that rotate slightly as you hover over them - it looks like parallax, but it's subtle 3D. As you scroll, the images tilt away and you enter a new chapter.
A cool technique is the Click-and-hold, where you keep the mouse clicked on a chapter image. This activates the sound and makes all kinds of extra story elements appear on the chapter image. Very nice is also the use of dynamic typography at the opening of the story and at the transition between the chapters.
God is also in the details here: this story gets its high level especially by the smooth way the screen responds to scrolling, with a finesse that until now you only found in the better audiovisual motion design.
What is it about?
A very special water sprayer from L'Oréal for hair salons - after watching this story, you immediately want to become a hairdresser, just to be able to use that sprayer!
What's between the tags?
This is a typical interactive story of a physical product. You open directly with your product, here in 3D, and you give the scrolling viewer the key benefits step by step. Then you strip away the skin of the 3D image and let the user look inside the product, at the technical marvels that make it so innovative.
Nicely done, this story, even with the moving 3D background, although the copy could be better (there's even a whopper of a language error in there). Still, it is mainly with the story structure that we question. Notice how this story makes a combination of purpose (a better world) and sales (buy me), and ask yourself if this works.
In our opinion, this story shows that it is better to separate these goals in content: either you work on conversion and steer the story via the hard benefits to a call-to-action, or you work on engagement and create all the space in your story to go into purpose.
In conclusion: this story shows that interactive storytelling can be used not only in B2C but certainly also in B2B.
What is it about?
Pacemaker is a streetwear brand that is now stepping into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with a "Membership Street Art Project."
On Pacemaker NFT, you first buy an NFT in the shape of a 3D bunny. Once you have that, you can buy all kinds of street art NFTs, which are offered for sale in waves in the community. Those street art NFTs, in turn, you can have them turned into exclusive physical fashion objects. Like a hat? A cool hat, though.
What's between the tags?
This story creatively relies on one 3D object: a figure whose helmet is only visible at first and who, as you scroll, gradually becomes fully visible and begins to walk across the screen. Kind of creepy? Perhaps. But definitely intriguing. And very delicately crafted.
What is it about?
Medal of Honor is an acclaimed first-person shooter game in VR.
What's between the tags?
In this interactive, you follow a camera trail through a city while scrolling, which is an interesting storytelling technique. You scroll through the city and click on hotspots to view short game clips. A dynamic baseline with some visual deep dives, in other words.
To realize how well crafted this story is, you can compare it to another story that also works on a camera track, The Surrealist Flight Experiment. Little surreal, we think, unless that's synonymous with super boring. The story has basic flaws: it has absolutely no suspense arc and, as a user, you get no sense of control: you don't know how far along the trajectory you are. Okay, this story is just an experiment by a content agency to develop as light as possible, but it does show some of the things you need to pay attention to as a creative team.
What is it about?
The US Air Force is pulling out all the stops to recruit new personnel.
What's between the tags?
The U.S. military has long used innovative storytelling techniques to attract personnel. In this interactive, we get the same technique as in the Medal of Honor trailer above: you follow a camera trail through a landscape scrolling and are given regular hotspots that you click on to view and listen to more info.
The story takes you on a rescue mission in the snowy desert of Alaska to rescue some people who crashed in a small plane far from civilization. It is based on true facts and is given a very authentic character by incorporating audio interviews with the soldiers who carried out the mission.
The screenwriters have added an additional interaction layer as a transition between scenes, in which the user has to slide a ball over a trajectory to launch the next scene. There is also a learning curve in this: the first trajectories are easy, the next ones get a little more difficult.
Creatively, this is very well made.
- You get a clever angle on this military subject (you don't drop bombs but save ordinary people),
- high level of reality (true story told by the rescue team themselves),
- a nicely constructed story (short exposition that quickly reveals the story objective, clear chapters that also include an unexpected, dramatic twist),
- professional sound support of the story with (sometimes a touch bombastic, but that may suit those who aspire to a job as a hero in the air force),
- clearly visible but not intrusive identification of the client US Airforce and calls-to-action "connect" and "apply now.
- at the end also the opportunities to revisit the story or click through to other similar stories.
We're not big war fans, but this is puffy work.
What is it about?
The Playstation 5 is already a lot more powerful than previous versions AND the console has an updated controller, which can vary in vibrations. Those changing vibrations in your hands make the experience of the game much stronger.
What's between the tags?
This sales story is unbalanced, but interesting precisely for that reason. The core story shows visually very nicely the strongest assets of the new controller, but gives a very technical explanation for them. 'Adaptive triggers' and 'Haptic feedback'? It seems you have to have studied on to buy the new Playstation.
Did the company notice too late that something was wrong here? If you are too far into the creation process, it costs a bomb of money to substantially change the concept. Maybe that's why there's just an opening section pasted to this story that actually tells the whole sales story by itself. Here we see a simple image of the console and scroll through to a flat listing of its main strengths, plus a review of some trailers of PS5 games, with a buy button at the top, of course.
Something must have gone wrong in creating this story. Too bad, but instructive at the same time. Evaluate your concept thoroughly before fleshing it out.
What is it about?
Sales story of the Google Nest Mini, the little sister of the home assistant Google Home.
What's between the tags?
This sales story has been online since at least late 2019, and yet it still has an impact that is pretty okay. The reason is simple: the story applies the basic rules for interactive sales stories of physical products just fine.
- We open with the product name, a tagline and a product image that rises dynamically with the scroll, showing its sympathetic round shape in a fun way.
- Below that product opening, we get a short video loop showing the use case: a dad sitting at the kitchen table with his baby, swinging to the music coming from the Nest Mini on the table.
- In the next scene, we get the assets: better sound, environmentally friendly, better speech recognition. While the text changes when scrolling, the product stays in the same place but changes to illustrate the text, for example with sound waves in the better sound.
- In different scenes, we then go into more detail about the usage aspects, such as the apps you can connect, the simple voice controls.
- Somewhere in the middle, a short scene also overcomes a possible resistance: 'Since you invite us into your home, it is important that we respect your privacy,' with a button to more information. Rhetorically, this is state of the art: you don't wake up sleeping dogs but pay just enough attention to this delicate point for those most sensitive to it.
- The interactive concludes with a choice between different colors of the Nest Mini, and a buy button.
Google has looked very closely at the Apple stories here. The company does not reach the level of the master here, but it probably did not put the same budget into it either.
What is it about?
The image bank Shutterstock produces an interactive every two years about image trends it notices based on usage figures.
What's between the tags?
This is not a pure sales story, but an assortment story. You feed your customers deeper into your assortment in a fun way, increasing their satisfaction with the offer and possibly their buying volume.
Everything in this story is a little too much and over the top, but maybe that's just right for a story for creatives (sorry, creatives!). Or the money didn't run out (sorry, strategists!). Anyway: the story opens with a classic textual intro - weird for a seller of images. Once you scroll, you then have to choose an Avatar. This appears to stick to the pointer on your screen throughout the story. The avatar also changes its outfit with each new trend. If the story is about the Middle Ages, for example, the avatar is in armor.
At its core are six selected creative trends, such as The Macabre or Cyberpunk. You get an image opener for each trend and the ability to click through to a deep dive into the trend. There, the trend is further explained in text and images, you see by how much percent the associated search terms have increased in the past year, and you can further explore the specially curated trend collection around the theme.
The story concludes with a world map, which shows a highlight for a whole series of countries. If you click on it, you will see the trending keywords of the past year in that country. Belgium is not listed as a country, but we still think this is a very nice find, perhaps because it is a form of non-intrusive personalization.
This is not the first time Shutterstock has produced such an interactive. Two years earlier, the company also published a - slightly simpler but also fun - 2020 creative trend report.
Quite a few other companies now also create interactive annual summaries. Everyone knows the personalized overview that Spotify sends to its listeners every year, but Duolingo also provides its students with a personalized overview of completed language lessons every year. You can find our Duolingo annual overview here - yes, we could have worked a little harder on our Danish lessons.
What is it about?
Spotify wants to make its podcast offerings better known to listeners.
What's between the tags?
To conclude this list, we would like to put this little gem in your hands. This is another assortment story, drawing customers deeper into the assortment.
As an angle, Spotify takes the horoscope. Nice: no one believes in it, but everyone is curious about what it will tell you next. You choose your sign, click up to three areas of interest, click your listening target, and finally indicate the time of day you usually listen.
Then the planets go into sync and you get your "Astrology Club" membership card. When you click on it (with a click-and-hold), the card flips over and you get the playlist of podcasts that suit you. You can play the playlist, save it to your Spotify library, and you also get an incentive to come back later and get new podcast recommendations through this horoscope.
We were a little disappointed with the recommendations because they only included American podcasts, but the game itself is super-creatively made. Pure with simple 2D graphics, but full of little visual finds, clear UX elaboration, fluid in its interactions, and beautifully supported by sound.
