25 Interactive Content Statistics for 2021

Written/Updated on December 18, 2020
By Jayme Severance

Take your content to the next level with these tips!

If stealing picnic baskets from hikers in a national park isn’t your thing, you’d be smarter than the average marketer to use interactive content.

And why shouldn’t you? Interactive content generates a greater rate of engagement, resulting in improved data quality.

It comes in many forms, from interactive video, to assessments, to interactive eBooks and beyond—the point is that there’s much to choose from.

Interactive content just happens to be the new and improved way to interact with customers. It’s about establishing a two-way conversation. Prospects and customers decide what content to consume, how and when they want to.

Simply put, customers want content when they want it, and you deliver. It’s that easy.

This makes interactive content a form of customer-centric marketing. But with so many choices of interactive content out there, it paints the picture that it’s complex. Many marketers shy away from it for that very reason.

For now, let’s focus on a handful of types.

Four Common Types of Interactive Content

There are four common types of interactive content that we’ll hone-in on in this blog, which are:

Interactive infographics

Interactive infographics are just like static infographics in that it’s essentially a chart with a collection of useful information. The difference is in how this information is presented to a reader.

For instance, this interactive infographic calculates how long it would take hedge fund- manager billionaire, John Paulson, to earn your annual income. The key here is motion. The figures in the infographic are computed before your eyes.

And the results will blow your mind!

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Calculators

Speaking of calculations, interactive calculators, like interactive infographics, are pretty straight-forward. You input information; you receive a calculation. Those generally tend to have a colorful and dynamic display.

For example, the authors of Get Paid For Your Pad: How to Maximize Profit From Your Airbnb Listing, compiled an interactive calculator. Its purpose is to evaluate the quality of an Airbnb listing.

They reaped from those efforts—according to LearnG2.com, witnessing “800+ conversions at a 41 percent conversion rate.”

Contests

Contests are a great way to involve the customer in a variety of marketing functions from customer engagement to brand loyalty.

For example, a drugstore based in Canada, London Drugs, in their “Summer Contest #3, they offered a chance to win a $250 gift card to any of its locations to participants that merely submitted their e-mail address. As a result, “Facebook became London Drugs’s ‘#1 source of website traffic referral.’”

The point is that their prize was relevant. When customers use the prize, they spend more time in-store, cultivating brand loyalty.

Games

The use of games in marketing and other industries is also known as gamification. A good example of gamification in marketing would be Mazda.

Mazda built an in-ad game called “Lightrider.” Its purpose was to advertise their 2015 Mazda2 line of vehicles. The fruits of Mazda’s labor proved to be successful with an interaction rate of over 3%. These are quality results for the automotive industry.

Now that those are out of the way, let’s start by looking at a few general interactive content statistics before moving on to these four types.

25 Interactive Content Statistics

1. and 2. 4/5 of marketers think interactive content engages readers.

Engagement can be driven in a variety of ways when it comes to interactive content.

This can be done through 360° video, virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactive videos. The difference between all of them is the level of immersion. For example:

  • 360° video has the ability to look in every direction, but not be able to move. It’s just like any other video, but with the added ability to look in any direction, but you’ll miss out on the video content if you’re looking away. Boursin, for instance, a Gournay cheese company, released a YouTube 360° video of a virtual refrigerator tour.
  • VR involves headsets. It provides an all-encompassing experience. The Oculus Quest is a good example of a VR headset, although it’s used for gaming.
  • AR is the same thing as VR, minus the headset. Instead, AR is primarily used with a smartphone, and with a projected 3.8 billion smartphone users by 2021, AR seems to be very lucrative in the near future.

A graph showing the increase of smartphone users from 2016 to 2021

Source: Statista

  • Interactive video involves audience participation to continue. For example, consider Hulu. Although they allow customers to have an ad-free subscription, those who choose to have commercials get to experience Hulu’s interactive ads.

Here’s how it works. You watch a program. An ad break follows. At the beginning of the ad break, Hulu gives you a choice to see a “normal” ad break, or an interactive one. The interactive one is basically a commercial where at the end, you have to interact with the ad, whether declining the invitation to learn more about the product advertised, or declining the offer and continuing with your programming.

This is interactive video. The program will literally not continue without action on your part.

3. and 4. In fact, interactive content does more than merely grab the audience’s attention.

9/10 of marketers said interactive content can be great for buyer education, in comparison to just 70% for static content

That’s why the experience interactive content provides is so valuable.

eMarketer has found that six out of every ten B2B marketers cite lead generation as their biggest challenge in marketing—something interactive content is good at.

Source: eMarketer

5. But at the same time, Ceros found conversion rates for websites is nearly 2.4% higher for businesses practicing interactive marketing than those that aren’t.

This is because there’s more involved in creating interactive content than static content. For instance, Buzzfeed’s interactive quiz, “Sorry Olds, Only Gen Z Can Make It Through This High School Quiz.” is an interactive video quiz.

That means content creators have to make interactive videos for each choice made by the user. This process is known as branching. On the one hand, you have the quiz itself, and on the other you have the different branches informed by the choices a prospect can make.

So the reason why conversion rates are 2.4% higher for interactive content is because interactive videos involve users in a way that static content can’t.

6. 88% of marketers believe in the power of interactive content to be the differentiator between similar brands.

DemandGen Report statistic on interactive content

Source: Demand Gen Report

7. and 8. According to Buzzsumo, “the number of interactive posts has increased by 33 percent, but the average number of shares has fallen by 62 percent.”

Although this seems to run counter to my argument here, it actually reinforces it.

Interactive content is not cheap. Games are notorious for this. Let’s look at video game software company, Gamify. According to their FAQ, on average, “a game cost can range from $4,000 to $25K [for them to create].”

This means if you do interactive content, to get the results you want, it’s important to create your content well.

9. Around six out every ten brands use infographics in their marketing.

This means that interactive infographics have the unique ability to stand out as visual content that provides value to your audience in the form of information.

Infographic Content Marketing Statistic from Venngage

Source: Venngage

BBC does a great job with this in “Your Life On Earth.” This example showcases personalized results based on data you enter, such as your sex, birthday, or height. Using that information, BBC shows you how much the earth has changed in your lifetime.

According to the BBC website: “Investigate how the world around you has changed since you’ve been alive; from the amount the sea has risen, and the tectonic plates have moved, to the number of earthquakes and volcanoes that have erupted.”

Now THAT’s interactive!

10., 11., and 12. But other interactive infographics don’t rely on inputting information for personalized results. Hint.fm tries the standard static infographic approach with a twist.

Here, hint.fm overlaid interactive graphics on a static image of the United States to demonstrate current wind speeds across the nation—a feast for the eyes!

In fact, Visme cites 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual in nature of the information transmitted to our brains is visual, with the brain processing visual cues 60,000 times faster than textual ones.

When these bits of information are taken together with the fact that the brain can also compute complete images in 13 milliseconds, its little wonder infographics are as popular as they are.

13. There’s not much to interactive calculators. They’re pretty easy to understand. You input information, you get calculations sent back to you. But with interactive calculators, the data is shown in a dynamic way.

For example, the NY Times released an interactive calculator that computed the amount you’d get back as a result to the changes in the U.S. tax code in 2017. The graph changes as a result of the data you enter.

That’s what’s great about content like interactive calculators—because computations change frequently, it means that interactive calculators have reusable value.

Speaking of, nearly 80% of marketers agree that interactive content can prove their worth time and time again.

Source: DemandGen Report

14. Another interactive calculator example is for mtnonline.com, which is a telecommunications company operating out of Nigeria. Their Data Usage Calculator, as with the NY Times example, is simple. Input information to get a data usage calculation.

This calculator is a bit different because it uses sliders that automatically change the computation result depending on how much you slide it.

Consistent with the interactive calculators by the NY Times and mtnonline.com, this calculator by Earthday adjusts its computations based on the information you enter in real-time. The point of this calculator is to figure out your specific impact on the planet based on the plastic you consume.

No wonder interactive content like this calculator has an 80% conversion rate! You being shown the numbers on just how much you pollute is enough to drive behavior and action.

15. Contests are among the oldest forms of interactive marketing. But contests need two things to be successful:

  • Precise targeting
  • Relevant prizes

This contest from bird feeder company, Perky Pet, featured a specific prize that would attract a particular type of person relevant to its business. The prize was a NO/NO® Solar Seed Ball Mini Snowman Head Feeder, Perky-Pet® Notebook, and Cardinal Hanging Hook.

It’s a further example of just how specific to make the prizes in your contests. It’ll keep prospects and customers coming back for more. An overwhelming majority of people who enter competitions are likely to share a brand’s content when the contest ends.

DMNews statistic on People who enter competitions

Source: DMNews

16., 17, and 18. Almost 3 out of 4 people will recommend a brand based on whether or not they offer giveaways and competitions.

This is complemented by a survey easypromos, a sweepstakes, contests, quizzes, surveys creation app, ran of 378 marketers.

DMNews statistic on giveaways

Source: DMNews

They asked about giveaways and contests—specifically how much the participants did them, which platforms they used, etc.

The results bore out that “66.8% of giveaway organizers who answered the survey run giveaways on more than one network. 45.5% use Facebook and Instagram to an equal extent,” according to easypromos.

Easypromos data on social media giveaways

Source: easypromos

19., 20., and 21. Gamification is the use of games in marketing, among other industries, to promote customer engagement, as mentioned previously. Video game designer, Gamify, offers an excellent example of this.

Using their video game creation software, you can create a game such as “Kite Kittens.” “Kite Kittens” is a side-scrolling, Nyan Cat-type video game where a kitten is attached to a kite overcoming obstacles and avoiding enemies.

It’s a fun way to engage users.

Perhaps that’s why the Corporate Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is expected to rise by a margin of over 30% compared to 2019.

Business Wire statistic on CAGR

Source: Business Wire

CAGR, according to Investopedia, is “the rate of return that would be required for an investment to grow from its beginning balance to its ending balance, assuming the profits were reinvested at the end of each year of the investment’s lifespan.”

So if profits are reinvested, gamification can really excel.

Perhaps that’s also why by 2025, the revenue gamification generates for businesses from sales will reach over a projected $32 billion.

And why shouldn’t it be?

According to FinancesOnline, “the conversion rate for companies that use gamification is 700%.”

Taken together, games have a bright future and convert, if you reinvest in them.

FinancesOnline Gamification in Operations Graph

Source: FinancesOnline

22., 23., and 24. Still not sold on gamification to power or boost your marketing? Consider the following from ELEARNINGinfographics.com:

  • 40% of Americans play 3 hours per week.
  • The average gamer is 35 years-old.
  • Those gamers play on average 13 hours per week.

ELEARNINGinfographics.com Gaming In America Statistics

Source: ELEARNINGinfographics.com

This means gamification is a viable market. It isn’t just for kids, tweens, and teens.

25. Nearly ever four out of five marketers agree that interactive content supplements brand messaging as long as you also use traditional marketing.

Source: DemandGen Report

This means that interactive content has a time and place. And that time is not all-of-the-time.

Did we do a solid job convincing you to use interactive content? Let us know by sending us a message in the chat below.


25 Interactive Content Statistics Sources

Agate. (2018, October). “Maximize Online Advertising with HTML5”. https://agate.id/online-advertising-html5/

Akhtar, O. (2014, May). “Infographic: How to generate engagement through a social media contest.” https://www.dmnews.com/customer-experience/article/13036737/infographic-how-to-generate-engagement-through-a-social-media-contest

Andre, L. (2020). “47 Gamification Statistics You Must Know: 2020 Market Share Analysis & Data.” https://financesonline.com/gamification-statistics/

Blunt, W. (2018, May). 11 Interactive Marketing Examples That Inspire, Engage, and Convert.” https://www.shortstack.com/blog/11-interactive-marketing-examples-that-inspire-engage-and-convert/

Business News Daily. (2020, May). “What Is Gamification?”. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4541-gamification.html

BusinessWire. (2019, August). “Global Gamification Market 2019-2023| 30% CAGR Projection Over the Next Five Years | Technavio”. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190813005394/en/Global-Gamification-Market-2019-2023-30-CAGR-Projection

Ceros. (2019, March). “Interactive Content Marketing: A Beginner’s Guide.” https://www.ceros.com/resources/interactive-content-marketing-beginners-guide/

Chibana, N. (2020). “Do Infographics Increase Reading Comprehension and Recall? [Research].” https://visme.co/blog/infographic-statistics/

Cronstedt, J. 2017, November. “What Is Gamification, How it Works & How It Can Help Your Business”. https://medium.com/@jcron_89878/what-is-gamification-how-it-works-how-it-can-help-your-business-19f98f1a9d4e

Demand Gen Report. (2018, April). “The State of Interactive Content Marketing: Statistics and Trends.” https://www.demandgenreport.com/resources/infographics/the-state-of-interactive-content-marketing-statistics-and-trends

Dubey, E. (2019, May). “The Power of Interactive Content (+6 Content Examples to Use)” https://learn.g2.com/interactive-content

ELEARNINGinfographics.com. (2017, March). “Gamification: Educate, Engage, Entertain Infographic.” https://elearninginfographics.com/gamification-educate-engage-entertain-infographic/

eMarketer. (2013, April). “Lead Generation Poses Biggest Challenge for B2Bs.” https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Lead-Generation-Poses-Biggest-Challenge-B2Bs/1009829

Gamify.“FAQs”. https://www.gamify.com/faqs-page

Gillett, R. (2014, September). “Why We’re More Likely To Remember Content With Images And Video (Infographic).” https://www.fastcompany.com/3035856/why-were-more-likely-to-remember-content-with-images-and-video-infogr

Keefe, C. (2019, September). “Survey: How Brands Use Giveaways Today.” https://www.easypromosapp.com/blog/en/2019/01/survey-how-brands-use-social-media-giveaways-today/

Lynkova, D. (2019, August). “Top Gamification Statistics of 2020: Next Level Gaming.” https://review42.com/gamification-statistics/

Mahesh, S. (2015, December). “Interactive vs Static Content.” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/interactive-content-vs-static-sairaj-mahesh/

Mazime. (2018, May). “Interactive Content Marketing – Statistics and Trends”. https://blog.touchify.co/en/interactive-content-marketing-statistics-and-trends

McCoy, E. (2017, September). “Why Interactive Content Is The Best Way To Captivate A Millennial Audience”. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/09/01/why-interactive-content-is-the-best-way-to-captivate-a-millennial-audience/#6546ca3665ce

McCready, R .(2020, February). “20+ Infographic Statistics & Facts For 2020.”https://venngage.com/blog/infographic-statistics/

Moeller, S. (2018, August). “20 Examples of Truly Engaging Interactive Content (Updated).” https://buzzsumo.com/blog/20-examples-truly-engaging-interactive-content/

Nuckols, B. (2020). “29 Infographic Statistics You Need to Know in 2020” https://visme.co/blog/infographic-statistics/

Outgrow. (2020). “10 Statistics That Prove Interactive Content is the Future of Digital Marketing.” https://outgrow.co/blog/interactive-content-future

Outgrow. (2017). “How an Interactive Calculator Generated 11,592 Qualified Leads”. https://outgrow.co/blog/generate-qualified-leads

Outgrow. “Customer Engagement Using Interactive Content”. https://outgrow.co/blog/customer-engagement-interactive-content

Renom, S. “7 Social Media Contest Ideas for your Social Loyalty Program”. https://www.socialandloyal.com/7-social-media-contest-ideas-for-your-social-loyalty-program/

Richards, R. (2017, June). “8 Interactive Content Statistics to Guide Your Marketing Spend in 2017.” https://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/8-interactive-content-statistics-guide-marketing-spend-2017-01855508

Shannon, J. (2019). “Gamification Case Studies 2019 Examples”. https://www.gamify.com/gamification-blog/7-successful-gamification-case-studies-and-what-made-them-so-effective

Statista. (2020). “Number of smartphone users worldwide from 2016 to 2021.” https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/

Trafton, A.( 2014, January). “In the blink of an eye.” http://news.mit.edu/2014/in-the-blink-of-an-eye-0116

Upland Kapost. (2019). “Why Create Interactive Content? Examples and Benefits to Guide Your Strategy”. https://uplandsoftware.com/kapost/resources/blog/interactive-content-examples-benefits/

Wishpond. 2015. “30 Amazing Examples of Branded Facebook Contests Done Right”. https://blog.wishpond.com/post/52173284787/10-amazing-examples-of-branded-facebook-contests-done

Yerian, D. (2019. October). “ How Interactive Content Can Help Generate Leads”. https://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/how-interactive-content-can-help-generate-leads-02249594

Disclaimer: The views expressed in guest posts are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of our website or company.

About MESH Interactive Agency

Founded by an experienced life sciences industry veteran, MESH is a digital marketing agency purpose-built to help you accelerate growth at every stage, from innovation to exit. We help life sciences, healthcare and technology companies build their brands, develop and execute marketing strategies, fill their funnels, and develop ground-brealing interactive technology and experiences.

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Meet the Author

As the Junior Copywriter at MESH, Jayme brings a quality craftsmanship and artistry to assignments he creates. In his spare time, he passionately advocates for traumatic brain injury awareness to create a better tomorrow for people with similar conditions in his soon-to-be-published novel-length memoir: The Hayden Diary: Chasing The Prom From A Hospital Bed.

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