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Leveraging Haptic Feedback for Mobile Video

Posted Jul 9, 2015

Haptic feedback technology has been used to amplify in-game immersion for users for decades, and now mobile publishers and advertisers can captivate users just as easily with haptic feedback for Instant-Play™ HD mobile video powered by Immersion TouchSense technology.

How it Works on Mobile
Immersion’s haptic technology TouchSense simulates the feel of real world with tactile effects on digital devices. The software controls the vibration motor in mobile phones to create physical feedback.

Android users with haptic keyboards may already be familiar with the feedback sensation. Like music notes, these effects can range in intensity, amplitude, frequency, and duration. The result can range from simple vibrations or the thumps of a heart beat to an ongoing murmur of dread in a dramatic video. The result is a natural augmentation to the viewing experience that is well received by the vast majority of users.

Haptic Charts.003

Thus, it’s not surprising that haptic technology is considered a powerful tool for content publishers and advertisers, as it allows them to literally touch the consumer in an otherwise digital experience, driving significant increases in brand and messaging recall. In fact, according to recent case studies, Immersion found that leveraging haptic feedback for mobile resulted in:

  • 50% increase in sense of engagement and feelings of immersion
  • 5-15% increase in brand sentiment
  • 10-15% increase in likelihood of social media sharing
  • 62% of users preferred haptic video experience over video alone

How it Works with Mobile Video
Traditionally, haptic feedback is triggered by events. To enable the experience for mobile video, triggers must be added to a haptic track that is then synced with the video. While this process sounds complicated, the integration of a simple SDK library bundle manages the process and ensures a consistent user experience. For instance, the AdColony SDK is already haptic compatible and utilizes the Immersion TouchSense Technology to manage haptic synchronization with Instant-Play™ HD mobile video via a small library plugin.

Enabling Haptic Feedback
For publishers already using the AdColony SDK, integration is as simple as:

  1. Add the Armeabi library to their integration.
  2. Include the VIBRATE permission in the AndroidManifest.xml.
  3. Check out the Android SDK Integration Wiki for any questions.

Improving In-App Promotions
Publishers already leveraging video to drive in-app purchases can add haptic feedback to the in-app promo videos to give the user a more immersive sense of the power of a premium upgrade, the personality of a new character, or whatever else they want to showcase. Whether it’s simply adding a gentle vibration to the purr or roar of a premium cat in an endless runner or the feel of the ground rumbling under a premium tank in a mobile moba, it is easy to see the many applications where haptic feedback could draw the user closer to an in-app purchase.

Driving App Installs
As performance advertisers cannot rely on audio to captivate users within their mobile video user acquisition campaigns, haptic feedback offers a new way to capture attention without annoying the user. For publishers already leveraging haptic feedback in their games, adding this feature to their UA campaigns can give potential users a more realistic and exciting sense of what gameplay will be like.

In fact, according to research by Immersion, UA videos leveraging haptic feedback resulted in a 9% install rate increase over the control group.

Haptic Chart.001

Building Brand Recall with Haptic Mobile Video
In a brand recall test, users were shown an even split of tactile and standard mobile videos in a single session. One week later, the participants were asked which videos they recalled in an open response survey.  Not surprisingly, 87% of videos recalled utilized haptic feedback, a true indication of the power of haptic feedback for mobile video brand campaigns.

Haptic Charts.002

Join the Conversation
How do you use haptic feedback technology to create a more immersive experience for your users? Let us know by tweeting to . For the latest AdColony mobile news and updates, follow  on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or connect on Linkedin.

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