April 28, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
New technology tools allow organizations to make their online videos more interactive, Michael Hoffman, chief executive of See3, a Chicago consulting company, told participants at the Nonprofit Technology Conference.
Among the nonprofit videos he pointed to as examples: That’s Not Cool, a new campaign designed to help teenagers recognize the role that technology can play in unhealthy or abusive relationships. The online campaign was developed by the Advertising Council, in partnership with the Family Violence Prevention Fund.
The campaign uses a light touch to talk about what can be a difficult issue.
In one video, sock puppets portray a teenage couple in which the young man is overwhelmed by the constant text messages he receives from his girlfriend asking where he is and what is he doing. After laying out his dilemma, the video asks the viewer what he should do:
A — You have no choice. You tell her your phone is broken.
B — Tell her she needs to trust you and give you some space.
C — Move away and work on a horse ranch.
What viewers see next depends on which answer they choose.
Adding this kind of interactivity to online videos increases viewers’ involvement, said Mr. Hoffmann.
“If you think about it, a lot of video is very passive,” he said. “You watch the video. That’s pretty different than a lot of what we’re talking about with social media, which is about commenting and creating and doing.”
