Virgin Mobile Is Using A Clever Eye-Tracking Trick To Get People To Watch Its Video Ad

Virgin Mobile is using a cool webcam technology to make its latest video ad an interactive experience that encourages viewers not to click away.

With help from creative agency Mother NY and digital production lab Rehab Studio, Virgin Mobile produced an advertisement in which the on-screen video changes every time a viewer blinks. The advertisement uses eye-tracking technology and viewers' webcams to change the video scene. The video shifts between a series of goofy scenes made by production company Greencard Studios.

All of the clips feature the same script about Virgin Mobile's $35 monthly phone plan, with the idea being that making an interactive ad would get people to focus on the YouTube video long enough to hear Virgin Mobile's pitch. Here's what the demo video looks like:

Virgin Mobile is calling its interactive eye-tracking experience "Blinkwashing."

The ad is the final piece of Virgin Mobile's "Retrain Your Brain" campaign, which seeks to draw attention to its low-cost data plans and convince people to switch over. If you have a webcam on your computer, you can try it out for yourself here.