As we prepare ourselves for tomorrow’s mélange of cooking, schmoozing, eating, and more eating, we thought it was important to pause and reflect on where we are as a company going into our third year.

Since January 2013, we’ve closed a significant round of funding, added six new full-time talents to our team, rebranded from FlixMaster to Rapt Media, and created innovative, engaging Interactive Video (IV) projects with Maybelline, Philips/Ogilvy, HBO, Gaiam TV, Kara Ross New York, and The...

This article was originally published on Wired's Innovations Insights blog on November 19, 2013. 

Online video is the single most powerful tool companies have to communicate with customers. Videos can grab attention instantly and forge an emotional connection in moments – something a website alone almost never achieves. Videos travel well and can be distributed across owned sites, ad networks, and social networks alike. And let’s face it; the average customer is much more likely to click on...

Photo via Flickr: Kevin Moloney/Fortune Brainstorm Tech

Rapt Media’s fearless leader, CEO Erika Trautman, knows a thing or two about being a hardheaded woman in the male-dominated world of tech startups. After all, women only account for about seven percent of CEOs in the startup world. In a world where women are usually pitching to investors who are used to hearing pitches from men, should women be adapting to a more masculine style of pitching?

Trautman answers this question in her story...

Rapt Media has had its hands full recently with the launch of two noteworthy video marketing programs. Combining fast and easy implementation, scalability, and analytics allowed luxury accessory company Kara Ross New York and streaming TV service Gaiam TV to directly connect each Interactive Video campaign to measurable business results. These brands were able to quickly and easily transform existing video assets into scalable, premium, revenue-generating, interactive experiences.

According...

Online shopping just got a lot more exciting. Today, luxury accessories company Kara Ross New York is teaming up with Rapt Media to launch a premium online shopping experience as elite as the one in Ross’ brand new standalone boutique.

In conjunction with today’s grand opening of the Madison Avenue store, Ross is working with Rapt Media to give customers around the world the ability to shop the new Petra Collection of Fine Jewelry with one of the world’s first scalable, shoppable video...

Whether it’s the hilarious video of a cat riding a Roomba that your friend posted on your Facebook wall, or a clip of a major news event you missed during your work day, chances are you’re watching at least one video on the Web a day. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? According to Cisco, 85 percent of U.S. Internet users are watching Internet video. Yet, even with all of this online video watching, we’re still very much stuck in the past.

In a Wired Innovations Insight blog post authored by our...

Forrester recently published a comprehensive report on the benefits of Interactive Video entitled "Move Beyond Awareness With Interactive Video" [synopsis here]. The report covers how interactivity results in higher completion rates, engagement, and ROI and we're excited to share this with you as Rapt Media case studies are showcased several times. The report outlines the benefits of Interactive Video, as well as the "shortfalls in current approaches to online video and the benefits that...