- The Roku Channel has teamed up with Walmart for an interactive festive movie
- While free to watch, it will let viewers buy products on their TV during specific parts of the story
- This is the retailer’s second attempt after trialling a social media romcom series
It’s the end of November, and as the most wonderful time of the year approaches everyone is settling down to watch Christmas movies. There’s plenty on offer whether you want a cozy classic, a cheesy Hallmark guilty pleasure, or some alternative horror festive offerings (I’m usually the latter, admittedly). The best streaming services have a lot on offer, but the Roku Channel has announced a very different kind of movie, one that might end up costing you more than you planned.
Jingle Bell Love is currently streaming on The Roku Channel, one of the best free streaming services. It stars Joey McIntyre, a member of the boy band New Kids on the Block, who plays a single father visiting his late wife’s hometown where he finds love in an unexpected place. So yeah, exactly the kind of feel-good romance you’d expect!
But it’s not your average movie, it’s interactive because it allows viewers to buy products from Walmart on their TV during specific parts of the story. So if you’ve ever seen something in a movie and thought “Hey, I want one of those”, now’s your chance.
Take a look at the trailer below.
How does Jingle Bell Love’s interactive elements work?
Reaching into the TV and taking something is a concept that’s still not yet available, as cool as the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie made it look. So Walmart has a different approach to what they’re describing as a “shoppable TV”.
Prior to Jingle Bell Love, the supermarket trialed a social media romcom series Add to Heart, which had 23 episodes released on TikTok, Roku, and YouTube last December. Clearly a lot of work went into this, as even some of the best Netflix shows don’t have 23 episode runs.
During each minute long episode, we saw a bunch of products like an ELF lipgloss and a drone, and the YouTube description had a link to buy the products featured in that episode.
According to Business Insider, they’re going one step further with Jingle Bell Love, as it’s a feature length movie and Walmart will make it easier to buy products seen on the TV screen by enabling account connections between Walmart and Roku, so that payment information can be filled out automatically. Feedback off the back of Add to Heart suggested that it was “too much work to buy stuff.”
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lucy.buglass@futurenet.com (Lucy Buglass)
