Consumer Reports bets heavily on video, with results

Consumer Reports is no longer just a magazine and a website.

The personal finance magazine has launched its first-ever interactive video holiday gift guide. It teamed up with a company called WIREWAX to create it — and it takes viewers on a customized tour inside Consumer Reports where they can choose their own path and investigate gift ideas and other content from an interactive map.

The video is part of a larger video strategy at Consumer Reports to drive engagement through new story-telling formats.

For instance, Consumer Reports released a 17-minute documentary film a few weeks ago that followed a Buffalo man during his final weeks of life as part of a larger multimedia initiative it did about end-of-life issues.

“Employing new technology like this is part of our broader video strategy to help users engage with our brand’s unique, expert content in fresh ways,” says Gwendolyn Bounds, senior director of video at Consumer Reports, who joined the magazine about a year ago after working in The Wall Street Journal’s video operation.

Since Bounds started in January, Consumer Reports has been building its video staff and has hired producer and editors who worked at brands such as ABC News, The Wall Street Journal and CNN.

Views across its multiple partner platforms are up 30 percent year-to-date as it has increasingly strived to invest in producing content that’s timely and relevant to consumers.

For instance, its September video putting the iPhone 6 to the test in the Consumer Reports labs is the most-watched video in Consumer Reports history with nearly 4.7 million views, and was widely shared by other media.

Here’s the interactive holiday gift guide: