French mobile firm Phonitive has launched Touchalize, an interactive touchscreen technology which is intended to enable advertisers to better engage users with their mobile video ads, as well as mobile games and other rich content.

Touchalized ads can be interacted with to make changes to the video in real time – Phonitive gives the example of changing a cars colour – or add the users own content – like pasting their own face onto the driver, for example.

“Touchalize takes mobile touchscreen interaction – whether iOS or Android – to a whole new level,” said Phonitive CEO Guillaume Lemoine, creator of the technology. “It will change the way people interact with brand advertising in the mobile world to the benefit of users and brands alike and it will change the way people are able to play games.”

Augmented video ads seem an increasingly popular format at the moment, but its currently hard to see how it could be applied in a way that goes beyond a gimmick. Itll be interesting to see whether the technology gets adopted, and how brands use it.