Choose Your Adventure with YouTube

About a month ago, YouTube announced annotations -- clickable areas that allow the users to pick their own video path.  Think of them as the video version of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.  The Interactive Card Trick video (with almost 6 million views) was the first to use this feature.

More recently, Cory Williams made a series of interactive videos challenging the user to find his cat Sparta by picking different rooms and furniture in his house to search (via Adverblog).  Annotations lead the viewer on a mini-adventure throughout Cory's house in search of his cat.    After a few tries, I still haven't located Sparta.

(Annotations don't work in embedded videos, so you'll have the view the YouTube version here)

As brands begin to realize the creative potential here, we're going to be seeing a more of these videos popping up.  Video quests or a choose-your-adventure commercials are simple ways to get people engaging and having fun with your brand.