The 10 very best Interactive Sales Stories
Let's start with the best: Apple has been showing superiority for years
What is it about?
Apple blijft zijn titel als keizer van de interactieve sales stories waarmaken. Bij elk nieuw topmodel legt het merk de lat weer hoger. Voor de lancering van de iPhone 16 Pro maakte Apple een showcase die toont wat er gebeurt als design, copy en technologie volledig op elkaar ingespeeld zijn.
What's between the tags?
Van bij de eerste scroll voel je: dit is premium. De intro opent met een sfeervolle 3D-animatie die de iPhone 16 Pro bijna ceremonieel onthult. De copy is beheerst, exact getimed en ademt het zelfvertrouwen van een topmerk. Alles draait hier om beleving en bewijs.
Technisch en visueel barst dit verhaal van finesse: subtiele parallax-effecten, cinematische overgangen en kleine motion details die je bijna niet opmerkt – maar die je wel laten voelen dat alles tot in detail klopt. De structuur is logisch: eerst de grote wow, dan het overtuigende waarom, en uiteindelijk de overtuigende CTA’s die subtiel maar doelgericht klaarstaan.
Wat opvalt: Apple durft lang te gaan. Elk element krijgt ademruimte. Er is geen enkele angst om uit te pakken met details – zolang die maar bijdragen aan het grotere verhaal. Dit is storytelling op niveau, waarin elke animatie, elk woord, elke transitie een rol speelt in het geheel. En dus blijf je scrollen. En scrollen. Tot je overtuigd bent. Of je nog maar eens opnieuw wil kijken.
Market for NFTs or collective storytelling? Discover the world of Keeper in KPRverse
What is it about?
Genius idea: this is a vulgar marketplace disguised as a super cool scifi story. KPR is a metaverse world in which users first create an avatar and then join the fight as a 'Keeper' to preserve the new world. This "collective narrative" is funded by the users themselves, who buy and sell all sorts of "collectibles," with crypto coins.
What's between the tags?
This story first lays out a simple storyline and then elaborates it with great finesse. Essentially, it's an ordinary scroll story based on 3D images that rotate slightly as you hover over them - it looks like parallax, but it's subtle 3D. As you scroll, the images tilt away and you enter a new chapter.
A cool technique is the Click-and-hold, where you keep the mouse clicked on a chapter image. This activates the sound and makes all kinds of extra story elements appear on the chapter image. Very nice is also the use of dynamic typography at the opening of the story and at the transition between the chapters.
God is also in the details here: this story gets its high level especially by the smooth way the screen responds to scrolling, with a finesse that until now you only found in the better audiovisual motion design.
You can almost feel it in your hands: the super spray for hairdressers in 3D
What is it about?
A very special water sprayer from L'Oréal for hair salons - after watching this story, you immediately want to become a hairdresser, just to be able to use that sprayer!
What's between the tags?
This is a typical interactive story of a physical product. You open directly with your product, here in 3D, and you give the scrolling viewer the key benefits step by step. Then you strip away the skin of the 3D image and let the user look inside the product, at the technical marvels that make it so innovative.
Nicely done, this story, even with the moving 3D background, although the copy could be better (there's even a whopper of a language error in there). Still, it is mainly with the story structure that we question. Notice how this story makes a combination of purpose (a better world) and sales (buy me), and ask yourself if this works.
In our opinion, this story shows that it is better to separate these goals in content: either you work on conversion and steer the story via the hard benefits to a call-to-action, or you work on engagement and create all the space in your story to go into purpose.
In conclusion: this story shows that interactive storytelling can be used not only in B2C but certainly also in B2B.
Kind of creepy 3D story, as it should be for Pacemaker streetwear.
What is it about?
Pacemaker is a streetwear brand that is now stepping into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with a "Membership Street Art Project."
On Pacemaker NFT, you first buy an NFT in the shape of a 3D bunny. Once you have that, you can buy all kinds of street art NFTs, which are offered for sale in waves in the community. Those street art NFTs, in turn, you can have them turned into exclusive physical fashion objects. Like a hat? A cool hat, though.
What's between the tags?
This story creatively relies on one 3D object: a figure whose helmet is only visible at first and who, as you scroll, gradually becomes fully visible and begins to walk across the screen. Kind of creepy? Perhaps. But definitely intriguing. And very delicately crafted.
Interactive trailer of Medal of Honor game. Don't watch if you can't stand blood and shooting
What is it about?
Project 2075 van brillenfabrikant Oakley is een futuristische visie op de sportwereld van morgen. Geen productpagina, geen gewone campagne, maar een interactieve experience die de grenzen tussen fictie en merkidentiteit lijkt op te heffen. Wat begon als een manier om de atleten van ‘Team Oakley’ te introduceren, mondde uit in een visueel verbluffend en strategisch doordacht universum.
What's between the tags?
Je komt terecht in een digitale nieuwe wereld waarin sport, technologie en menselijkheid samensmelten. De beleving start met een grafisch gedurfde intro waarin je scrollend door een door een artificiële metropool navigeert. Alles voelt strak, gefilterd en doelgericht, zoals het Oakley past. Elk onderdeel – van de look van de interface tot de animaties – ademt die typische performance-esthetiek.
De structuur is episodisch: elke atleet krijgt zijn eigen narratief, gestileerd als een minifilm. Binnen die kaders beweeg je je door video, copy en illustratie, telkens met een opvallend gevoel voor ritme. Je krijgt het idee dat je een stripverhaal leest én een trailer kijkt, tegelijk.
Net als bij een goeie game of Netflix-serie zit de kracht in de worldbuilding: Oakley nodigt je uit in een ander universum, maar met herkenbare sporticonen als ankerpunten. En dat werkt. Je voelt je betrokken, ook al weet je dat het allemaal fictie is. De mix van motion design, soundscape en typografie zorgt ervoor dat je niet gewoon kijkt of leest – je beleeft dit.
Project 2075 is geen sales story die wil converteren met buttons of CTA’s. Het is een imago-statement dat laat zien wat een merkverhaal anno morgen kan zijn: meeslepend, multimediaal en moedig anders.
On rescue mission with the US Air Force
What is it about?
The US Air Force is pulling out all the stops to recruit new personnel.
What's between the tags?
The U.S. military has long used innovative storytelling techniques to attract personnel. In this interactive, we get the same technique as in the Medal of Honor trailer above: you follow a camera trail through a landscape scrolling and are given regular hotspots that you click on to view and listen to more info.
The story takes you on a rescue mission in the snowy desert of Alaska to rescue some people who crashed in a small plane far from civilization. It is based on true facts and is given a very authentic character by incorporating audio interviews with the soldiers who carried out the mission.
The screenwriters have added an additional interaction layer as a transition between scenes, in which the user has to slide a ball over a trajectory to launch the next scene. There is also a learning curve in this: the first trajectories are easy, the next ones get a little more difficult.
Creatively, this is very well made.
- You get a clever angle on this military subject (you don't drop bombs but save ordinary people),
- high level of reality (true story told by the rescue team themselves),
- a nicely constructed story (short exposition that quickly reveals the story objective, clear chapters that also include an unexpected, dramatic twist),
- professional sound support of the story with (sometimes a touch bombastic, but that may suit those who aspire to a job as a hero in the air force),
- clearly visible but not intrusive identification of the client US Airforce and calls-to-action "connect" and "apply now.
- at the end also the opportunities to revisit the story or click through to other similar stories.
We're not big war fans, but this is puffy work.
Thrilling! The fabulous Playstation5
What is it about?
The Playstation 5 is already a lot more powerful than previous versions AND the console has an updated controller, which can vary in vibrations. Those changing vibrations in your hands make the experience of the game much stronger.
What's between the tags?
This sales story is unbalanced, but interesting precisely for that reason. The core story shows visually very nicely the strongest assets of the new controller, but gives a very technical explanation for them. 'Adaptive triggers' and 'Haptic feedback'? It seems you have to have studied on to buy the new Playstation.
Did the company notice too late that something was wrong here? If you are too far into the creation process, it costs a bomb of money to substantially change the concept. Maybe that's why there's just an opening section pasted to this story that actually tells the whole sales story by itself. Here we see a simple image of the console and scroll through to a flat listing of its main strengths, plus a review of some trailers of PS5 games, with a buy button at the top, of course.
Something must have gone wrong in creating this story. Too bad, but instructive at the same time. Evaluate your concept thoroughly before fleshing it out.
The oldest interactive in this list: Hey Google Nest!
What is it about?
Sales story of the Google Nest Mini, the little sister of the home assistant Google Home.
What's between the tags?
This sales story has been online since at least late 2019, and yet it still has an impact that is pretty okay. The reason is simple: the story applies the basic rules for interactive sales stories of physical products just fine.
- We open with the product name, a tagline and a product image that rises dynamically with the scroll, showing its sympathetic round shape in a fun way.
- Below that product opening, we get a short video loop showing the use case: a dad sitting at the kitchen table with his baby, swinging to the music coming from the Nest Mini on the table.
- In the next scene, we get the assets: better sound, environmentally friendly, better speech recognition. While the text changes when scrolling, the product stays in the same place but changes to illustrate the text, for example with sound waves in the better sound.
- In different scenes, we then go into more detail about the usage aspects, such as the apps you can connect, the simple voice controls.
- Somewhere in the middle, a short scene also overcomes a possible resistance: 'Since you invite us into your home, it is important that we respect your privacy,' with a button to more information. Rhetorically, this is state of the art: you don't wake up sleeping dogs but pay just enough attention to this delicate point for those most sensitive to it.
- The interactive concludes with a choice between different colors of the Nest Mini, and a buy button.
Google has looked very closely at the Apple stories here. The company does not reach the level of the master here, but it probably did not put the same budget into it either.
