In 1979, the first Choose Your Own Adventure books first appeared in bookstores. The series, aimed at children, allowed readers to become the hero of a story and to determine their fate through a series of decisions. In the decades since, the basic concept — interactive fiction driven by the choices of a reader — has expanded into other mediums. Today, digital video makes it possible to differentiate an audience’s experience more than ever before. Viewers feel a sense of agency when they’re able to choose where a story goes. Perhaps more importantly, in a sea of content, this two-way dynamic keeps audiences interested.
Last spring, YouTube launched a division devoted to choose your own adventure programming. In late 2018, Netflix released its first choose your own adventure film, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, an extension of the popular episodic dystopian series. Chooseco, the publishing company that owns the “Choose Your Own Adventure,” trademark took issue with this and filed a suit against the streaming company. Just last week, Netflix filed a response arguing that Chooseco no longer has claim to the term, which has become as generic as terms like frisbee or bubble wrap, both of which come from brand names.
For most of its existence, Eko, a ten-year-old digital video brand that tactfully refers to itself as a “choice-driven entertainment company,” has monetized its patented interactive video technology through partnerships with larger media companies. Among these are Refinery29 and Buzzfeed, for whom they’ve made videos that riff on the sites’ successful quiz formulas. Last month, Subaru announced an ad campaign in conjunction with Eko and Buzzfeed in the form of a three-part mini-series about their iconic Outback model. Last year, Eko launched scripted web series, some of which include interactive shopping through Walmart, a major backer of the company.
Perhaps one of the best examples of interactive storytelling driving real life engagement comes from the dating app Tinder, which recently announced that it would release a second season of Swipe Right, a choose your own adventure style mini-show within the app. The previous season ran on Sunday evenings this past October, and each five-minute episode was only available for six hours, 6pm local time to midnight. The goal was to get as many users as possible on the app at the same time, and to give them something to talk about (user’s answers from the show were shared on profiles). This real-time engagement strategy reportedly attracted millions of viewers, resulting in a 25% boost in matches and 12% jump in conversations.
It’s unclear whether reaching Gen-Z and millennials on familiar platforms or through easy-to-consume mediums like short video will drive engagement for advertisers in the long term. But, by definition, choose your own adventure content does elicit short term engagement. Without viewer participation, these videos simply don’t work. In a world where two minutes of playing time counts as a view, as was recently revealed to be Netflix’s metric, a truly interactive audience is attractive. Passivity on the part of the consumer is the norm for most forms of entertainment, but digital-first content is beginning to change that dynamic. Even something as simple as choosing which brand to watch an ad from, a common feature on Hulu, demands viewer participation. In today’s divided entertainment market, attention is currency.
