Idomoo Launches Interactive Video Platform

Could highly personalized interactive video become the primary way that businesses communicate with customers in the future? That’s what the team at Idomoo is betting on. The company is launching a fully open, enterprise-grade platform called Living Video that will enable businesses to automatically update videos in real-time based on context and user input.

Video marketing has been picking up steam for some time, and Idomoo is not the first startup to make a name for itself in the space. However, Idomoo is putting a unique spin on the technology with in-player customization and native interactivity. With Idomoo’s new platform, companies will be able to create new viewing experiences for consumers each time someone clicks play.

Idomoo Chief Marketing Officer ​​Yotam Benami says the concept for Living Video was born out of the need to make video as adaptive, interlinked, and relevant as the rest of the internet. 

“If you think about it, when you visit a website, the pages are connected to each other, but when you come across a video, it’s siloed — not linked to anything else,” Benami says. “And while websites respond differently based on your context and other available data, like an e-commerce store showing you different products based on what you’ve browsed in the past, videos historically were the same for everyone, regardless of context.”

Idomoo’s technology looks to change how video is used by companies, giving viewers a similar type of interactive experience to what they’ve come to expect from the web. Brands will be able to upload media, change elements, and make the kind of video content that encourages viral social sharing. They’ll also be able to integrate new native interactivity elements that go beyond the click of a button, so users can interact directly with videos to trigger a host of actions. 

Benami says videos will be shoppable, which is a feature retailers have been leaning into during the pandemic. 

“So far, clients have been amazed by this new technology, maybe even a little overwhelmed at the possibilities,” Benami says. “This paradigm shift in all that video can do takes a while to grasp. But as they’re realizing the huge potential, brands are excited to leverage the newfound power at their fingertips.”

Social distancing and other pandemic safety protocols have only increased the demand for interactive video, although Benami says the trend was already underway before Covid-19 entered our consciousness. Despite being asked to stay indoors and avoid shopping in person for much of the pandemic, consumers are still craving a personal, human touch to the digital interactions they have with brands. 

Other startups are also establishing themselves in the video space, albeit with a different take on the medium. StoryTap, for example, is a video storytelling platform that’s being used to cut down on customer service call volumes by helping employees quickly answer common questions. The company recently announced a partnership with the Canadian telecommunications company TELUS that led to a 20% decrease in customer service call volume.

While more companies are dipping their toes into video marketing, Benami believes we’re only just skimming the surface of what the medium can offer.

“In the past, people tended to view video as one-size-fits-all. Personalized video revolutionized that by making each video as unique as the person watching it,” Benami says. “Going forward, people won’t expect videos to necessarily be something you sit and watch. They’ll look for interactivity and even ways to take control of the narrative. With our next generation video platform, customers can input their own data — whether text or rich media like photos and video — to create a new iteration of the original brand video in real time. It’s not just storytelling anymore; it’s a conversation with video as the medium.”

Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.