Beyond the Play Button

From Passive to Interactive Storytelling

Great storytelling is fundamental to every brand and product. A strong narrative is what piques your audience's interests, shapes their purchase decisions, and builds lasting trust.

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As Nobel-prize author Daniel Kahneman said in his book Thinking Fast and Slow, “No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.”

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Software companies have long relied on video to capture the hearts and minds of customers; however, there's a constant struggle between the time and money invested and the quality produced.

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“Creating a video” can range from a quick and scrappy 5-minute screen recording to a $50k+ investment that can only be approved once or twice a year. This becomes a tricky decision for companies that are shipping fast and trying to break through the noise.

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Product-forward teams are turning to interactive video because it’s faster, cheaper, and more engaging. With Arcade, companies are seeing 7x higher click-through rates than video.

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Why Teams Are Choosing Interactive Experiences Over Video

Videos remain extremely valuable for storytelling — from YouTube to Instagram reels and even Superbowl ads. Yet, for product-centric companies aiming for speed and driving clear action, interactive videos (also referred to as “interactive demos”) may be a better fit for your company.

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Here’s why:

• Ease of creation: No technical skills needed. Interactive demos streamline content creation and allow more teammates to self-serve (while staying on brand).

           🕹 Arcade’s median time to publish is 6 minutes

• Assets designed to be updated: Unlike fixed videos, interactive demos can be easily updated and optimized without extensive time or resources.
• Integrated Call-to-Actions: Interactive demos can incorporate call-to-actions throughout the experience, capturing viewer intent in real-time.
• Actionable Insights: Interactive demos provide rich insights into viewer engagement and interests, enabling informed decision-making.

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And yes, some interactive demo platforms offer video & GIF exports for added versatility. 😊

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“Arcade is probably one of the most important ways for us to showcase the product and allow our web visitors and prospects to self-educate even before they jump into the product.” - Danielle Russell, VP Product & Marketing, Nudge Security

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Drive 7.2x Higher Engagement with Arcade vs. Video

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Vidyard recently released their 2023 Video Benchmark Report which said that the average video CTR across the 1.7M+ videos on their platform was 3.21%.

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The average click-through rate (CTR) across 20k+ published Arcades is 23% — or 7.2x higher. Interactivity drives engagement and increases conversion.

Why are Arcade customers seeing stronger conversion than video?

In addition to the reasons listed in the section above - like ease of creation - there are a few key ways that make great Arcades stand out against video:

• Choose your own adventure: Branching allows viewers to select their own path, leading to a more relevant experience…. and more insights for you on the back end!
• Provide more context: Arcades create a layer on top of your product to share more context while keeping your viewer engaged through hotspots and callouts.
• Tell a cohesive story: Every great story has chapters. In Arcade, chapters do the same thing by dividing your video into parts and creating moments of pause or action (like a CTA button).
• Learn at your own pace: Viewers can easily go back and forth or focus on parts of the Arcade to better understand a concept. The intuitive navigation bar and controls make this even easier.
• It’s fun 😊 - try and see if you agree.

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… and most importantly, every Arcade should be an extension of your brand. Effortlessly beautiful.

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Customer Story: Quantum Metric

The product marketing team at Quantum Metric, a leading digital analytics platform knew that their buyers faced a challenge in evaluating product after product. They saw this as an opportunity to bring their product forward and allow prospects to see and experience their product much earlier in the journey.

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They first tried to do this with video, but once they switched to Arcade they found that they were seeing:

• 5x more engagement on Arcades compared to video content
• 10x faster to create compared to video
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"We tried other demo platforms made specifically for this, and it just didn’t work. We wanted to tell a story and do it fast. So we needed something easy to use. Arcade was the first one where we just picked it up, were able to run and see results fast, with limited resources." - Trevor Pyle, Senior Director of Product Marketing and Strategy

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The journey from passive to interactive storytelling is not just a trend—it's a transformative leap in how product-forward companies tell the story of their product.
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We believe in designing a faster, more adaptable, and engaging way for teams to captivate their audiences and drive action. If you’re interested in learning more about how Arcade could work for your team, drop us a line at <sales@arcade.software> or book time here.