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The Future of Mobile Advertising

The future of mobile advertising isn’t decades down the line, it’s here today. Mobile advertisements are continually evolving to fight for space and consumer attention.

Cleaning Up the Mobile Ad Ecosystem With Interscroller Ads

If there was one word to describe the current state of the ad ecosystem, it would be polluted.

Obtrusive ads sully digital-safe havens and contaminate good content. Consumers are constantly wading through unwanted ads, while publishers and advertisers are at risk of having their brand reputation tarnished with irrelevant or inappropriate ad placements. Not quite an environmental catastrophe, but the trash is definitely starting to pile up.

Could interscroller ads be the key to cleaning up the mobile ad environment for good? 

Don’t wait to find out. Let’s explore the ins and outs of full-screen mobile ads and how they can benefit your brand.

The Lowdown on Interscroller Ads

With so many types of ad formats out there, it’s no wonder the advertising environment is polluted. Sticky banner ads and annoying pop-ups meant to grab consumer attention end up distracting from the content of a web page and turn consumers away. 

Now is the time for brands to take out the trash and invest in high-impact creative formats that deliver results.

Interscroller ads are just that. These highly visible, highly-engaging digital ads are ideal for grabbing consumer attention without disrupting their experience or the content. They work by revealing content as a reader scrolls down a visited page. When the user scrolls to reveal 85% of the placement, it can snap to take over the entire screen. 

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OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen Interscroller Ad in a mobile environment.

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Interscroller vs Interstitial Ads

What makes interscroller ads different from other full-screen ad formats like interstitial ads? 

Not all full-screen ads are created equal. Here are some of the main differences between interscroller and interstitial full-screen mobile ads:

User Experience

Interscroller ads prioritize a polite user experience. They integrate with content seamlessly and aren’t intrusive. Interstitial ads, on the other hand, operate similarly to your traditional (and rather annoying) full-screen pop-up ads. 

The experts at Google explain that interstitial ads are designed to be placed between natural transition points in content, like between paragraphs. However, that’s not always the case and they are often more intrusive and require readers to manually close the ad or wait until it’s over.

Viewability

The interscroller format is inherently more viewable than other full-screen ad units. That’s because it’s directly integrated into the page content and creates a pleasant ad experience. Interstitial ads are also very viewable but can have a slower loading time and higher bounce rates when readers become annoyed by the disruption.

Penalties

Interstitial ads really aren’t all that they’re cracked up to be. To put it simply, they’re disruptive while interscroller ads are less intrusive. On mobile devices where screen space is limited, large interstitial ads can be a real pain.

This is even an issue that Google tried to mitigate back in 2017 by penalizing pages where the content was less accessible due to intrusive full-screen pop-up ads. Publishers and advertisers alike should prioritize quality full-screen ad experiences over annoying ones.

How Interscroller Ads Clean Up the Ad Ecosystem

Cleaning up the digital advertising environment is no small undertaking.

That’s why interscroller ads are more than just nice to interact with, they actually have the metrics to back up their success.

Let’s take a closer look at how the interscroller ad formats benefits brands and, by extension, the world of mobile advertising.

Capture Consumer Attention

In the polluted ad landscape, capturing consumer attention is more difficult than ever before. Too many brands focus on viewability metrics such as impressions and reach, but fail to understand if their ads are truly resonating with their audience.

So, let’s be clear: Just because an ad is viewable it doesn’t mean it will actively be viewed by consumers!

Attention is the new metric advertisers should be prioritizing to not only create a future-proof brand, but to also help the ad ecosystem as a whole. Size just so happens to be one of the key drivers of attention, meaning interscroller ads are some of the best at capturing consumer attention. 

Full-screen ads are virtually unmissable, and interscroller ads specs can perfectly fit the size of a mobile screen. When paired with engaging creative, like video, brands can stand out from the rubbish.

Increase Eye-On View Time

The numbers on interscroller ads don’t lie. In a small-scale study with Lumen Research,  MOBKOI found how full-screen ads helped with attention advertising for a Luxury Retailer and a Multinational Energy Company. It showed that interscroller ad formats had an eyes-on view  time that was 2.4 - 3x more than the norm for a standard mobile display ad.

Similarly, both brands experienced a drastic increase in both spontaneous and prompted brand recall thanks to these full-screen ads. 

In the world of digital advertising, seconds matter when it comes to connecting with consumers. Unmissable, creative interscroller ads make every second count to capture their attention.

Higher Engagement Rates

As we said, interscroller ads don’t just look great, but they also outperform other types of display ads time and time again.

According to the most recent Celtra Creative Insights Report, interscroller engagement rates were 4x higher than Universal Banners. They had the best engagement rates compared to other types of ads by far.

Eliminate Media Waste

Of course, investing in better ad formats is just one part of the equation to clean up the digital ad landscape. Getting rid of waste is equally, if not more, important. Adopting a zero-waste media policy is one of the best ways to stop contributing to the pollution that plagues the current ad ecosystem.

It’s important to curate digital ad experiences with a focus on premium sites and unmissable, high-quality inventory. Full-screen ads are designed to be seen and provide a larger canvas for beautiful and interactive creative to be viewed and engaged with. 

It’s time for brands to stop investing in junk and instead optimize their spending with fewer, higher quality ad formats like interscrollers that deliver results.

The Challenges of Implementing Interscroller Ads

There is an important caveat to the ability of interscroller ads to better the digital advertising experience. They must be used correctly

Like with any ad format, full-screen ads need to be wielded smartly for the best outcome. This starts with ensuring your interscroller ads are engaging and utilizing cutting-edge creative and extends to placing them in premium environments.

But this is easier said than done. While interscroller ads are the perfect canvas to show off the best of digital ad creatives, inventory is sparse. These types of full-screen ads are a relatively new addition to the digital ad landscape, meaning inventory is highly sought after but also limited. Needless to say, it can be difficult for brands to scale interscroller ad campaigns.

There are unlimited creative opportunities with interscroller ads, but brands are often limited by inventory.

A Complementary Ad Campaign

The sparse inventory for interscroller ads means it would be incredibly difficult to run a campaign of solely full-screen ads. Luckily, you don’t have to.

Interscroller ads are perfectly complemented by a variety of other ad formats. More traditional display ad formats are an essential part of your creative mix to make your campaign a success. You can save your hyper-engaging, fun, and flashy creative assets for an unmissable interscroller and utilize display ads to solidify your brand identity and message.

Full-screen ads are perfect for showcasing your creativity and trying trends like augmented reality, virtual reality, and gamification. This way you’ll not only have an ad that’s unmissable but also one that consumers want to engage with.

Premium Publishing Networks

You don’t want your stunning interscroller ads next to rubbish. Placing your ads in premium environments ensures your message is being delivered to the right audience while protecting your brand image. 

If your interscroller ad ends up on a site with offensive content, it can leave a negative impression and cancel out your beautiful creative. Not only do you need to create visually appealing ads, but they also need to be placed in the right environment for the right audience to have the most impact.

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What’s the New Year all about? Resolutions and positive change. It’s an opportunity for individuals – and yes, businesses, too – to start afresh. But what might a business resolution look like?

There are ample opportunities to streamline processes, optimize budgets, and of course, make more meaningful connections with consumers. If your business is ready to make a big change in 2023, consider committing to a zero-waste media policy. By shifting your focus to the quality of your ad impressions over quantity, you can set your organization up for success – long past when everyone else gives up on the January resolution fad.

Media Waste 101

In the business world, waste equates to dollars down the drain. That’s why organizations spend millions optimizing their supply chain to reduce excess inventory and utilize every inch of their space.

But what about media waste?

Organizations often overlook the waste that occurs within marketing. There’s the belief that creating a stunning advertising campaign and sending it out into the world is enough to connect with consumers and receive an ample return on investment. But it’s not.

The truth is, many ad impressions are never seen by consumers which means most digital budgets are being spent ineffectively.

With more insight into how consumers view and engage with mobile ads, advertisers can better understand the toll media waste is taking on their campaigns. It’s time for advertisers to take a step back and commit to a zero-waste media policy.

The Importance of Adopting a Zero-Waste Media Policy in 2023

There’s no time like the present to commit to a zero-waste media policy. Reducing media waste is a savvy business move, especially during times of economic uncertainty. As marketing budgets tighten, it’s important for advertisers to spend wisely and focus on the quality of their ad campaigns over the quantity of content they can produce.

This is all to say that digital marketing is here to stay, but the way advertisers promote and distribute content needs to change.

You can already see how other media companies are going through a paradigm shift. Netflix, for instance, is drastically cutting back on original content. According to the Wall Street Journal, the streaming giant is looking to add fewer new titles, with a greater emphasis on quality productions. This is a shift to prioritize programs with the biggest return rather than reach.

We’ve been running on content overdrive, leading to ad creative fatigue among consumers and wasted ad spend for organizations. Now we’re seeing media companies and advertisers pull back to refocus on the quality of content over quantity.

Overcoming Ad Fatigue

It’s no secret that consumers are being faced with more ad creatives than ever before. According to recent research, the average person sees around 10,000 ads per day. That’s more than double the amount from a decade ago.

Average Views

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Number of ads the average person sees per day

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In fact, consumers are seeing so many ads a day that they’ve become pros at tuning them out. Many consumers mindlessly swipe through ads placed on social media without another thought because they’re in the scrolling mindset. Others turn to ad blockers to stop these distractions.

Many advertisers have poured more money into creative, targeted, flashy pop-ups and banners to combat ad fatigue. This disruptive marketing strategy is often counterproductive. Rather than being amazed by these ads, most people find them intrusive, disruptive, and obnoxious. According to research collected by Zippia, an estimated 90% of U.S. consumers find targeted ads intrusive and annoying.

It’s clear that the last thing consumers want is intrusive, disruptive ads. Rather, they want to be shown compelling, engaging creatives in contextually relevant environments where they’re willing to receive them.

The experts at Forbes summarize ad fatigue best, stating...

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“An ad that fails to reach a mind ready to remember is the proverbial tree falling in a vacated forest.”

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Forbes

Reducing ad fatigue and eliminating media waste go hand in hand. When you place polite yet engaging ads in premium environments, you can maximize your ad spend and increase brand awareness without frustrating consumers.

Three Ways to Eliminate Media Waste in 2023

Are you ready to eliminate media waste for good in the new year and shift to a zero-waste media policy? Here are three ways to maximize your mobile ad spend with the less is more approach.

Place Quality Ads in Premium Environments

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relevant to your brand. Many marketers consider social media to be the best platform for digital marketing. These sites are used by millions of people a day, so you’d think you'd have more eyes (and engagement) on your ads.

However, social media has become almost overwhelmed with content. A recent survey found that 74% of users think there are too many ads on social media. Even more interesting, 63% of users say they only see a few things advertised on these channels, over and over again, which can lead to ad fatigue.One of the best ways to stop wasting impressions is by making sure your high-quality content is placed in engaging environments that are


Users don’t go on social media to be sold to. Time and time again, studies show that social media users are on these platforms to form connections, interact with others, and be entertained. The last thing they’re looking for is to engage with an ad and, most of the time, find ads to be disruptive to their experience on these sites.

For advertisers looking to reduce waste, consider shifting more budget to premium ad placements on premium publisher sites. Why? For one, consumers tend to scroll slower and are more intentional when reading articles than when mindlessly scrolling and swiping through social media. In fact, according to one platform management expert, the average social media user scrolls the height of the Empire State building every day and spends an average of only 1.7 seconds on each social media ad. In comparison, ads placed on popular publisher websites had a view time of nine seconds.

Of course, not all websites are created equal. It’s important to curate media plans with a focus on premium sites and inventory. A consumer is more likely to engage with a polite full-screen ad on the New York Times rather than a small banner or annoying pop-up buried on an unreputable site.

Where you place your mobile ads is perhaps the most important step you can take to help avoid wasted media spend.

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Leverage Brilliant Unmissable Canvases

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Along with ad fatigue, ad blindness is another issue advertisers are facing. Consumers have gotten so good at ignoring ads that it’s become second nature. “Banner blindness” is a well-known phenomenon that describes how web users consciously or subconsciously ignore banner ads.

As Forbes explains, this ad blindness “doesn’t just mean that users don’t see your ads — it also means that what is displayed on said ads might not register with them.”

The best way to grab consumer attention? Investing in bigger, better ad formats. Full-screen ads are unmissable and provide a larger canvas for beautiful and interactive creative to be viewed and engaged with.

While the media and context of your ad placements are important, it is the quality of your creative that wins people over and grabs their attention. Full-screen ads can also be chock full of more interesting, interactive elements. From interactive video ads to advergames, you can create mobile ads consumers want to engage with to make your campaign a success.

Experience our Ads

Hover and scroll over the phone to reveal an Interscroller Ad

OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen Interscroller Ad in a mobile environment.

SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Time
iPhone Frame for Creative Demo

Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

Shift to Transparent Reporting and Attention-Based Measurement

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Impressions and viewability are no longer cutting it. Just because an ad appears in view, does not necessarily mean the content is being seen and absorbed by consumers.

A true zero-waste media policy requires marketers to go beyond reach and A) start tracking exactly where their ads are running and B) whether or not they’re capturing consumer attention. That’s why the industry at large is moving away from viewability and adopting attention as the new universal metric.

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"It’s not enough to be viewable. We need to know that people are paying attention to ads."

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Jen Faraci
Chief Data Officer, Digitas North America

Powered by sophisticated eye-tracking technology, Attention metrics for brand campaigns include things like in-view time, exposure time, and screen real estate. These factors can help predict how much time a user is spending digesting an ad. Advertisers can use these reporting measures to track performance and inform changes to creative and/or media placements to optimize their mobile campaigns.

By having the right measurement and reporting in place, advertisers can even move toward buying media based on attention vs impressions (which are often wasted). Out of all the ways to eliminate media waste, outcome-based buying is really the holy grail of a zero-waste policy.

Thriving in the Attention Economy:
Standing Out Among The Noise

The reign of viewability has come to an end in the land of digital advertising.

The experts at eMarketer emphasize that attention is rapidly dethroning viewability when it comes to which ad metrics are favorable among advertisers. Assessing whether consumers truly noticed and absorbed a message, rather than simply glanced at it, proves invaluable to advertisers seeking to measure outcomes.

This seismic shift in power isn’t far off in the future, it’s already happening. The report from eMarketer finds that 96% of advertisers worldwide will use attention metrics in at least some of their buys this year.

Are you prepared for this change?

Join us as we take a closer look at what the attention economy is and how brands can rise above the noise to capture consumer attention.

96

%

of Advertisers worldwide will use attention metrics in at least some of their buys this year

Eye Tracking

Taking a Close Look at the Attention Economy

It’s time to give the attention economy the attention it deserves.

The experts at Nielson say it best, “Attention is one of the most valuable resources of the digital age.” Just think of how much information we are presented with a day. We’re talking news, videos, shows, and more all available instantly online. Digital advertisements are also in the mix, but are often a casualty of the attention economy.

Having access to this wealth of information is a luxury people of the past didn’t have, but it can also be a burden. While there are endless amounts of information to see there are still only 24 hours in a day. And more importantly, our mental processing power has remained the same as it has always been. We simply can’t process all of the ads we see in a day.

As Nielson puts it bluntly, attention, not information, is the limiting factor in today’s society.

Changing Consumer Attention

It’s not only an abundance of content that’s proving a challenge to advertisers. Consumers are also more intentional about where they spend their attention. There is simply too much content on the Internet for the human brain to process, so the majority of ads are forgotten in seconds or glazed over due to ad fatigue. It’s no wonder they’ve gotten savvy at how to tune out ads online.

In most cases, consumers are simply on a mission for information and little else. The Berkley Economic Review emphasizes how when we go on the internet, we have a goal in mind. Whether that’s finding the answer to a question, finding the news, or conducting research, once we get what we want, we leave the site. In these scenarios, advertisers are fighting an uphill battle for consumer attention online.

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“A wealth of information creatives a poverty of attention”

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Herbert A. Simon

To put it simply, human attention is a scarce and precious commodity, and capturing it is becoming increasingly more difficult. The future that Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon, who came up with the attention economy definition as we know it, once predicted is here.

Tips for Standing Out in the Attention Economy

Nielsen predicts that the pressure to design ads for attention will only grow. As you’ve likely already experienced, automatically playing videos, pop-ups, and unskippable ad formats are commonplace even though they’re wildly unpopular. In this race for consumer attention, sacrificing quality for views is an easy trap to fall into.

So, how can your brand make sure your ad is one of the 10,000 that is seen and engaged with?

Don’t Share the Spotlight

Standing out in the digital age means demanding attention. In the crowded terrain, you don’t want your ad competing for view time with a dozen others. Formats like the interscroller ad take up 100% share of the screen and are virtually unmissable.

These ads improve average view time by more than 10 seconds, which is vital in this economy. Further research has shown that full-screen, interactive mobile ads have attention rates that are 3-5x higher than the mobile display norm.

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Campaigns leveraging the full-screen interscroller format achieve attention rates that are 3-5x the mobile display norm.

And it’s not just taking up the most space, it’s also about being the only brand on the screen. This is how MOBKOI helps brands break through the noise. When consumers are presented with one attention-grabbing ad on their screen, it boosts metrics across the board.

Where your ad is placed is important in more ways than one. Not only do you want your ads to be placed on premium websites, but you also want your ads to have complete, unobstructed viewability.

With programmatic advertising, more often than not your ads are competing with obnoxious sticky banners, pop-ups, and video overlays. This negatively impacts the user experience and can obstruct the ads you worked hard to create.

Bad vs Good Example

Did You Know?

By implementing a publisher-direct media buying strategy, you can avoid this issue. The real challenge lies in scaling up publisher-direct buying. At MOBKOI, we've built the infrastructure to ensure all the publishers you run across, be it 5 or 50, block intrusive ads — guaranteeing your creative content dominates the screen and boosts attention.

Don’t Dismiss Dwell Time

Dwell time is essentially the total amount of time that someone spends viewing or engaging with your ad - or in other cases, your site.

As we’ve mentioned previously, the average dwell time with a digital ad is only 1.2 seconds. MarketingWeek elaborates on this research, finding a clear, statistically significant link between dwell time and prompted recall. In fact, only a two-second dwell time translates to 28% prompted recall. This means a consumer remembers both the ad and the brand behind the ad. Increasing dwell time to 14 seconds almost doubles the prompted recall.

In other words, an ad impression can deliver twice the impact if dwell time increases. And based on what we’ve seen at MOBKOI, this experience is true.

Through recent studies we’ve conducted in collaboration with leading Attention Measurement firm, Lumen Research, we found that engaging, full-screen ad formats drive exceptionally high attention rates that are 3-5x the mobile display norm. This research has also further validated that a high view time and attention rate leads to increases across other brand lift metrics.

For one Luxury Fashion brand, the high-impact interscroller format held attention for an average of 2.6 seconds, which generated around 2,286 seconds per 1,000 impressions. This rate was 1.5x the outstream video norm and 3x the mobile display norm. Moreover, the campaign drove a 19% spontaneous recall and a 54% prompted recall, which is significantly higher than the industry average. Overall, the campaign achieved an 8% uplift in brand choice which topped the average range for digital campaigns with similar ad formats.

MOBKOI Makes Every Ad Impression Count

When advertisers find the perfect balance between creativity and attention measurement, magic can happen. Engaging ads placed in front of the right consumer in the right context is more profitable than placing hundreds of standard display ads across multiple unreputable sites. This is the fundamental flaw that is plaguing the industry, particularly within the programmatic landscape. Though a convenient way to buy and sell inventory, programmatic can not guarantee a 100% share of the screen nor block pop-ups.

Prioritizing the quality of your ads over the quantity (in terms of both creative and placement) is truly the way to stand out in the attention economy and make sure your message is one of the 10,000 that breaks through.

MOBKOI has mastered the formula for creating attention-grabbing ads. The combination of high-impact formats, such as the interscroller, and hyper-engaging creative strikes the perfect balance to maximize the impact of your ads. With a premium publisher-direct network, you also always know where your ads are being placed to make every impression count, all while protecting your brand and reducing waste.

You’ve spent countless dollars and hours building your brand, the last thing you want to do is have your reputation damaged due to an ad posted in an inappropriate location.

That, in short, is why you need to prioritize brand safety. When you’re proactive about protecting the image and reputation of your brand, you’re not only avoiding potentially costly slip-ups, but you’re also strengthening your connections with consumers.

Don’t leave brand safety to chance. Read on to learn more about brand safety and suitability along with the measures you can take to safeguard your image.

The ABC's of Brand Safety

With the right understanding of digital marketing, brand safety can be as simple as it sounds. As Amazon explains, “Brand safety in digital advertising is about protecting your brand’s reputation when you advertise.” It’s all about preventing your ads from appearing on inappropriate websites or alongside offensive content.

Essentially, brand safety looks at the bigger picture of advertising. Even if your ads are stellar and on brand, if they’re placed on an unsuitable website it can sully your brand’s reputation and consumer opinion. Similarly, it also helps your organization avoid ad fraud (more on this later).

Brand safety can be simple when you don’t get bogged down in the details.

Advertising

Brands should always have brand safety guidelines that apply to their advertising. Not only should it outline what counts for a branded ad, but also where these ads should and shouldn’t be placed. By avoiding these unsavoury websites, you’re protecting your brand and also ensuring your ads aren’t producing fraudulent clicks.

Brand safety should be a priority for mobile and desktop advertising.

Brand Reputation

Like we said, brand safety is about safeguarding your brand reputation. Your brand is your organization’s most valuable asset. Chances are you’ve spent years and countless dollars refining your image to capture consumer attention, and now it’s time to keep your brand safe.

Content

You don’t want your ads appearing alongside inappropriate content. Again, even if your message is relevant to your brand and the consumers you are reaching, if it’s on a site with offensive content it can leave a negative impression.

Not only do you need to ensure your ads are showing up on contextually relevant sites, but it is even more critical that other content on those sites meets your brand safety standards.

Brand Safety vs Brand Suitability

Brand safety and brand suitability go hand in hand. Brand safety is about avoiding unsafe advertising environments. It’s often used as a blanket term since many marketers can agree on what constitutes an unsafe environment. On the other hand, brand suitability is more nuanced and tailored to your brand.

As Oracle explains, brand suitability picks up where brand safety too often stops. Many brand safety measures center around blocking unsafe publishers from placing a bid on your ads, but that doesn’t mean all safe websites are actually suitable for your brand or audience.

In other words, brand suitability brings context to your ads. It’s about displaying your content in the right environment to the right audience so your ads can appeal to users on a deeper level.

Consider this example of Brand Suitability

You’re a business that sells healthy lifestyle wearables. Being health conscious and fitness oriented is an important part of your brand identity, so as part of your brand suitability guidelines you would never want your ads to appear on websites promoting smoking, excessive consumption, or alcohol abuse (there’s more of these than you think!).  Maybe you’d even go as far as only allowing your ads to appear on sites where other health-minded content also appears.

For other brands, having their ads run on a smoking website could make sense (and even be beneficial). But for a healthy lifestyle brand, it could hurt your reputation.

In short, brand suitability takes brand safety to a more personal level. Without it, your ads could be simultaneously putting your image at risk and missing out on the best opportunities to appeal to your specific audience.

What does Brand Safety mean to you?

As you can see, brand safety can be an overarching term while brand suitability is tailored to your identity and values. Both advertisers and publishers should prioritize brand safety to protect themselves.

Brand Safety for Advertisers

Advertisers and agencies should be proactive about protecting their brand identity. Like much of what we’ve already discussed, they can take measures to block unsafe publishers from their bidding lists and may have URL ad keyword blocklists.

Brand Safety for Publishers

While much of the emphasis on brand safety is for advertisers, publishers can also benefit from brand safety solutions. By only allowing quality, contextually relevant ads on their website, publishers bolster their brand and reduce potential risks like ad fraud and bot traffic.

Enhance Your Brand Safety Guidelines

So, how do you protect your brand and avoid ad fraud? There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to brand safety, especially when it comes to determining which sites are suitable for your brand. Of course, there are some steps you can take to protect your image and avoid ad fraud.

As we touched upon, blocking certain URLs and negative/positive keywording are some tactics brands can use to safeguard where their ads appear. But this isn’t an airtight solution.

Let’s explore some of the other ways you can safeguard your brand.

Best Brand Safety Solutions

Technology has been a double-edged sword when it comes to brand safety. In some ways, it’s made it easier for advertisers to block inventory. However, it has also complicated things for marketers. Certain digital marketing solutions give advertisers a false sense of security and control.

Here are a handful of the best brand safety solutions and how to wield them to your advantage.

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Publisher Direct Networks

Publisher Direct advertising, where advertisers work directly with the sites their ads will run on, took a backseat to Programmatic advertising for some time. The latter promised speed and flexibility, where going publisher direct had been somewhat cumbersome.  

As programmatic advertising has been shown to be rife with fraud and brand safety concerns, the pendulum is swinging back towards publisher direct. The experts at Forbes explain that ad fraud is common for programmatic advertising, often requiring expensive 3rd party tools to mitigate. In some cases, bad actors are able to use loopholes to pose as reputable buyers and sellers to create false clicks and impressions. This is a major problem, as Forbes highlights how recent reports show 39% of internet traffic comes from bad bots.

Since the early days, programmatic advertising has had problems guaranteeing that advertisers’ content won’t be placed next to hate speech or inappropriate material.  Unfortunately, those problems have only persisted.

Publisher direct advertising, on the other hand, puts more control in the hands of advertisers than anything else - not to mention vastly reducing the impact of fraudulent traffic. In this model, advertisers chose the sites and the content their ads appear next to. With the rise of private publisher direct networks, the speed of publisher direct now rivals that of programmatic - without all the fraud.

Investing in publisher direct advertising is an investment in brand safety and suitability.

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Contextual Intelligence

As we’ve always said: If content is king, context is queen. You can’t have one without the other!

Context is undoubtedly important for getting your ads noticed, but it’s also an important brand safety tool. It’s not just about ensuring your content is placed in the right environments but also keeping it away from unsavory content that could negatively impact your brand image.

As Amazon points out, the challenge of contextual targeting is achieving it in real time. The sheer amount of content out there can be difficult to grasp, and as mentioned, simply blocking certain URLs and keywords can actually make you miss out on opportunities to reach new audiences.

The solution is contextual intelligence. Essentially, this combines contextual targeting as you know it with the core ideas of brand suitability. It’s all about finding sites that are not only safe overall, but also relevant to your target audience and potential consumers. You can filter out sites with content that doesn’t meet your brand safety guidelines and find new opportunities you may have previously overlooked.

Contextual intelligence empowers marketers to take what they know about their audiences and utilize it to safeguard their brand. By not just looking at websites and keywords, but rather the bigger picture of a site’s audience and additional factors like site sections, vertical-specific content, etc. you can ensure your ads are relevant and complement the user experience.

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Transparent and Detailed Reporting

Of course, we can’t forget one of the most important brand safety tools: reporting. Without tracking your brand safety efforts, you don’t have any idea if your strategy is working until it’s too late.

Too often, marketers are left flying blind and have very little insight into where their ads are actually running. This especially rings true for brands that are overly-reliant on open market programmatic.

As noted, ad fraud continues to be a thorn in the side of the open market. When marketers are too focused on reach and scale versus quality, they can get sucked into believing their campaign is a success. Whereas in reality, much of their ad spend and impressions could be going towards fraudulent and made-for advertising sites or otherwise low quality publishers and inventory.

Instead, make sure to prioritize fully transparent site-level reporting when evaluating advertising platforms and partners.

100% Transparency from Day One

Going above and beyond the industry standard, MOBKOI offers full site-list transparency and granular performance reporting to all clients.

Hitting a business growth plateau can be jarring, but it doesn’t have to be your new normal.

When your once-stellar marketing strategy isn’t delivering results, it’s time to take a step back and reevaluate where you’re spending your ad dollars. Read on to learn more about how to overcome a performance plateau by ditching old habits and investing in future-proof digital marketing.

Defining the Performance Plateau

Chances are, you’ve heard the phrase “performance plateau” thrown around.

Many people talk about performance plateaus in sports, training, or the workplace. It’s essentially when you reach a point where no matter how hard you train or work your progress seems to stagnate.

And while much of the emphasis is on how performance plateaus can affect individuals, they can also affect brand performance.

Platau Graph

MarketingWeek explains that the business growth plateau happens when brands reach a point where the success of their traditional marketing mix levels off. Their original marketing campaigns are no longer effective and brand growth has stalled.

Hitting a performance plateau is especially stressful for brands with a performance mindset. When the numbers stall, it can seem like all is lost.

Is Anyone Safe From the Performance Plateau?

Experiencing a plateau in performance isn’t just an issue for new or growing brands. It can happen to anyone, anytime, for a variety of reasons.

From small businesses to medium B2B brands to major players in the B2C space, new and well-known legacy brands alike can experience a growth plateau. However, one common theme among brands that experience a performance plateau is their emphasis on performance marketing rather than marketing performance.

As you’ll see soon, measuring performance can only take brands so far.

Performance Marketing:
The Culprit Behind Performance Plateau

But we'll let you in on a little secret: Using the same performance marketing strategy and expecting the same results over time isn't sustainable.

When brands look for ways to cut their budget and focus on bottom-of-funnel performance marketing that’s worked in the past, their numbers stagnate.

The experts at McKinsey echo this sentiment. Data-driven performance marketing is often preferred among advertisers because it delivers concrete, measurable results. On the other hand, brand performance marketing (which we’ll get to in more detail soon) can be more difficult - but not impossible - to measure.

McKinsey explains that, because of this, many CMOs shift their marketing spend to capture customers at the bottom of the funnel. With performance marketing, it’s easy to justify this spend, but it comes at the expense of top-of-funnel marketing that can generate customer demand and capture consumer attention.It can be difficult for brands to pinpoint the cause behind their plateau in performance. After all, it’s startling when your typical marketing strategy simply stops delivering results.

This emphasis on bottom-of-funnel campaigns may deliver some immediate positive results but simply isn’t sustainable. The pool of customers ready to make a purchase will soon dry out and without a strong top-of-funnel campaign there won’t be more coming down the pipeline.

All of this is to say that having a sole focus on performance marketing is often what causes brands to plateau. It’s a short-sighted solution that ignores the benefits of creating meaningful connections with customers and building brand loyalty.

Funnel Graph

Brand Marketing vs. Performance Marketing

Ultimately, the difference between hitting a performance plateau and reaching new heights comes down to a solid understanding of marketing. And for this article, we’re focusing on the nuances between brand marketing and performance marketing.

Let’s start with the former. Brand marketing is all about creating a strong brand identity over time. It involves appealing to a consumer's emotions, creating brand awareness, and improving brand perception. By perfecting brand messaging and identity, you begin to connect with consumers over time.

However, measuring brand performance can be a challenge. There are no direct ways to identify how brand marketing contributes to sales and results can take a while to see.

Performance marketing, on the other hand, is all about meeting the immediate needs of reaching your target audience and generating leads and/or sales. It’s a data-driven approach that’s a lot more tangible for brands to understand - and justify.

As you can see, both types of marketing serve an important purpose. But this is often lost on decision-makers when dollars are on the line. Less than two years ago, Forbes reported that 70% of marketing professionals expecting budget cuts predicted they would make them to brand advertising. Performance marketing was expected to be among the least affected areas of investment.

Benefits of Brand Performance Marketing

Brand performance marketing is more important to a brand’s long-term success when compared to performance marketing. According to HubSpot, one of the best known brands in B2B Software, some of the benefits of building a strong brand include:

Setting Yourself Apart

in a saturated market. Consumers are always faced with choices. If they recognize your brand, they are more likely to choose your product or service over a competitor.

Build Brand Loyalty

Consistent, memorable branding builds credibility and trust that keeps your customers coming back to your brand instead of trying something else.

Promote Consistency

Speaking of consistency, branding can be the foundation of all your marketing efforts. Without a solid identity, your ads and marketing content - no matter where it falls in the funnel - won’t be as effective.

Encourage Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Get consumers excited about your brand with cutting-edge ads and experiences they can’t help but talk about or share on social media. Even if they don’t make a purchase, this type of marketing is invaluable to a business.

Boost Employee Morale and Company Culture

When you create a strong brand identity, it helps shape workplace culture. Your values and vision can help boost employee morale and retention while also attracting top talent.

Though intangible, the benefits of branding are undeniable. It’s a long-term investment that has a high return when given the budget and time to succeed.

Overcoming the Performance Plateau

Luckily, hitting a growth plateau doesn’t have to be your new normal. When the numbers start to stagnate, don’t panic! It’s time to step back and evaluate your current marketing strategy.

Chances are, you’re focusing too much spend and time on bottom-of-funnel ads. Maybe you were getting leads in the beginning, they’ve now started to taper off. Maybe you’re seeing the KPIs dip several weeks in a row. Either way, here are some steps to overcome the performance plateau or avoid it altogether.

Create Hyper-Engaging Top-of-Funnel Ads

While it can be tempting to shift your attention to lower-funnel ads when budgets are tight, this can do your brand more harm than good. Rather, it’s time to invest in hyper-engaging top-of-funnel ads that capture consumer attention.

Flashy ads are more than a flash in the pan. They’re always evolving to engage new consumers and outperform industry benchmarks. And, of course, these top-of-funnel ads are always tailored to your brand.

No matter if you choose to utilize augmented reality or elevate your ads with gamification, they should always be branded so consumers can learn more about your brand.

Creative Demo Frame

Luckily, hitting a growth plateau doesn’t have to be your new normal. When the numbers start to stagnate, don’t panic! It’s time to step back and evaluate your current marketing strategy.

Chances are, you’re focusing too much spend and time on bottom-of-funnel ads. Maybe you were getting leads in the beginning, they’ve now started to taper off. Maybe you’re seeing the KPIs dip several weeks in a row. Either way, here are some steps to overcome the performance plateau or avoid it altogether.

Create Hyper-Engaging Top-of-Funnel Ads

While it can be tempting to shift your attention to lower-funnel ads when budgets are tight, this can do your brand more harm than good. Rather, it’s time to invest in hyper-engaging top-of-funnel ads that capture consumer attention.

Flashy ads are more than a flash in the pan. They’re always evolving to engage new consumers and outperform industry benchmarks. And, of course, these top-of-funnel ads are always tailored to your brand.

No matter if you choose to utilize augmented reality or elevate your ads with gamification, they should always be branded so consumers can learn more about your brand.

Creative Demo Frame

Luckily, hitting a growth plateau doesn’t have to be your new normal. When the numbers start to stagnate, don’t panic! It’s time to step back and evaluate your current marketing strategy.

Chances are, you’re focusing too much spend and time on bottom-of-funnel ads. Maybe you were getting leads in the beginning, they’ve now started to taper off. Maybe you’re seeing the KPIs dip several weeks in a row. Either way, here are some steps to overcome the performance plateau or avoid it altogether.

Create Hyper-Engaging Top-of-Funnel Ads

While it can be tempting to shift your attention to lower-funnel ads when budgets are tight, this can do your brand more harm than good. Rather, it’s time to invest in hyper-engaging top-of-funnel ads that capture consumer attention.

Flashy ads are more than a flash in the pan. They’re always evolving to engage new consumers and outperform industry benchmarks. And, of course, these top-of-funnel ads are always tailored to your brand.

No matter if you choose to utilize augmented reality or elevate your ads with gamification, they should always be branded so consumers can learn more about your brand.

Creative Demo Frame

Luckily, hitting a growth plateau doesn’t have to be your new normal. When the numbers start to stagnate, don’t panic! It’s time to step back and evaluate your current marketing strategy.

Chances are, you’re focusing too much spend and time on bottom-of-funnel ads. Maybe you were getting leads in the beginning, they’ve now started to taper off. Maybe you’re seeing the KPIs dip several weeks in a row. Either way, here are some steps to overcome the performance plateau or avoid it altogether.

Create Hyper-Engaging Top-of-Funnel Ads

While it can be tempting to shift your attention to lower-funnel ads when budgets are tight, this can do your brand more harm than good. Rather, it’s time to invest in hyper-engaging top-of-funnel ads that capture consumer attention.

Flashy ads are more than a flash in the pan. They’re always evolving to engage new consumers and outperform industry benchmarks. And, of course, these top-of-funnel ads are always tailored to your brand.

No matter if you choose to utilize augmented reality or elevate your ads with gamification, they should always be branded so consumers can learn more about your brand.

Creative Demo Frame

How Top-of-Funnels Ads Benefit Your Brand

Top-of-funnel marketing sets the stage for the rest of your marketing efforts. After all, the chances are slim to none that a consumer will engage with your brand if they’ve never heard of it.

Top-of-funnel ads with cutting-edge features do wonders to capture consumer attention and, in turn, improve brand awareness. It’s no secret that consumers see thousands of ads a day through different digital channels. They’ve become masters at tuning out ad noise. Focusing on capturing consumer attention is key to creating a strong marketing funnel from top to bottom.

Measure Brand Lift

As we said earlier, measuring brand performance marketing can be difficult, but is by no means impossible. Brand lift is one way to measure the impact of your ads on brand perception and performance. According to Survey Monkey, brand lift can measure how consumers perceive your brand, which doesn’t always translate to sales or leads.

Brand lift is often measured through surveys and can help your brand gain a better idea around:

  • Brand Awareness

  • Purchasing Intent

  • Brand Consideration

  • Brand Loyalty

  • Brand or Product Recall

These insights are invaluable for the marketing funnel. They allow your team to create relevant ads and successful campaigns. Another plus is that you don’t need to complete a campaign to measure how it is stacking up. Conducting surveys and tests midway through a campaign can give you insights into its effectiveness and allows you to make necessary in-flight adjustments.And if you are looking for concrete numbers, the experts at Nielson found that a 1-point gain in brand metrics, like awareness, drives a 1% increase in sales.

Balance Top and Bottom-of-Funnel Ads

Finally, we can’t emphasize enough the importance of balancing performance and branded ads. You need both for synergy!

McKinsey explains that a full-funnel marketing strategy and shifting how you view advertising is the key to long-term success. Performance marketing returns have plateaued in recent years with inflation in digital media costs and new buying behaviors in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the use of automation tools has made performance marketing commonplace, meaning there’s little room to gain a competitive advantage.

It’s time for brands to be more strategic with their marketing budget in order to stand out.

Balancing content for both ends of the marketing funnel helps create a future-proof marketing strategy. Not only are you able to maintain existing customers and generate qualified leads, but you’re also building a strong brand identity to stay top-of-mind with your audience.

A Brand Success Story

Still not convinced about diversifying your marketing efforts? Large brands have already seen tremendous success by investing more in brand marketing to help them overcome the dreaded performance plateau.

Just take Airbnb. The well-established and known vacation rental company has made major changes to its marketing strategy in recent years that have paid off big time. The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2019, Airbnb began trying to depend less on search advertising and invest more in broad marketing campaigns to build its brand.

Airbnb Marketing

Like many well-known brands, it can be too easy to invest less in top-of-funnel marketing and take consumer attention for granted. But Airbnb took a different approach. In 2021, they reported that marketing expenses decreased by 28% from the last quarter, thanks to a decrease in performance marketing expenses.

This shift to brand marketing has clearly paid off. Though it took a few years, Airbnb has experienced its most profitable quarter to date. By balancing performance marketing and  branding efforts, such as awareness-based digital ads, it has successfully lowered costs while increasing brand lift.

And your brand could experience similar results with the right partner by your side.

Mobile is the next frontier for digital branding.

When you want to connect consumers with your brand, there’s no better way than through mobile. More consumers than ever before are using their phones to shop, get the news, and research products. It’s critical that marketers are meeting them where they are spending the most time.

Digital mobile branding should be a priority for your business this year. This article will dive deep into the importance of having a digital brand strategy for mobile and the elements it should include.

Defining Digital Branding on Mobile

HubSpot defines a digital brand by explaining that...

Quote Marks Symbol

“Companies don't sell products or services. They sell experiences, feelings, and ideologies.”

HubSpot Client Logo
HubSpot

Having a strong brand identity is important because it means taking control of the experiences, feelings, and ideologies that power the purchase of products. Your digital brand is the story, look and feel of your brand that makes it recognizable to consumers on the web. Most importantly, your unique digital brand is what makes you stand out from competitors.

Branding consists of everything from your name and logo to messaging, voice and identity that come across in your advertising and other digital assets (website, social media pages, etc). It’s both tangible in the sense that consumers can see and interact with your brand, but also intangible since you’re making your customers feel a certain way through your messaging.

But too often, companies don’t translate their brand identity online, especially on mobile. Your online presence is the premiere mode by which most potential customers will learn about and interact with your brand. It’s not enough to simply market your brand through digital channels to drive sales, it’s about creating lasting relationships with consumers. It’s why the authorities on the digital space like Google, Entrepreneur Magazine, Wordstream and more are constantly reinforcing the link between increased brand awareness and increased sales.

Brand Mobile

Digital Branding vs Digital Marketing

Many companies use branding and marketing interchangeably, and it’s understandable why. Both cover aspects of brand messaging, digital marketing channels and brand awareness to some extent. However, understanding their nuances can be the difference between having a strong digital brand and a forgettable one.

As we said before, digital branding is all about how you design and build your brand online through websites, apps, social media, videos and, of course, advertisements. It focuses on providing value to consumers and inspiring them to engage and remember your brand.

Digital marketing is a different beast. According to Investopedia, “Digital marketing involves marketing to consumers through any number of digital channels, including websites, mobile devices, and social media platforms.” In other words, it’s all about reaching a target audience to make a sale.

So, digital marketing is about selling products while digital branding is about building relationships. And while they should be treated as separate entities, they do go hand in hand. Without a presence in digital spaces that marketing provides, you wouldn’t be able to create a strong brand identity. And building brand recognition helps make digital brand marketing more impactful.

A digital strategy should focus on both branding and marketing to create cohesive, recognizable brand experiences that can potentially lead to sales.

The Importance of Meeting Consumers on Mobile

We also can’t forget to mention how important digital branding is in light of the digital revolution. Though the digital revolution has been ongoing for decades, recently the focus has shifted to how brands can capitalize on change. The experts at McKinsey explain that, in coming years, winning companies will prioritize digital, customer-centric innovation to build business resilience.

Having a digital branding strategy for mobile broadens your reach so you can engage with more consumers where they are consuming content.

91

%

of Americans ages 18-49 are mobile shoppers

Image of man buying something on a mobile phone

Digital brand management can help businesses stand the test of time. And equally importantly, it puts your brand in front of more consumers. Now more than ever, individuals are using their mobile devices for more than just communicating. Pew Research Center reports that 91% of Americans ages 18 to 49  say they have bought things online using a smartphone, and countless others use their phones to catch up on news, research products and more.

Having a digital branding strategy for mobile broadens your reach so you can engage with more consumers where they are consuming content.

The Benefits of Building a Strong Digital Mobile Brand

Having a strong digital branding strategy has the potential to change your business. And we’re not just talking about sales numbers.

Digital brand management, when done correctly, can impact every part of your business from hiring and company culture to customer loyalty. Let’s take a closer look at some of the benefits of having a strong mobile brand.

Brand Equity

Your brand is one of your company’s most valuable assets. Forbes acknowledges that brand equity is an overused buzzword in marketing, but is important to understand. At its core, brand equity is about the value a brand gains by building a positive reputation. It’s the perceived value consumers place on your products based on what they know about your brand.

Why is this important? Because consumers are constantly faced with choices when it comes to purchasing a product or service. Forbes explains that there’s a risk that comes along with choosing an unfamiliar brand, while familiarity breeds trust. Brand equity can make the difference when a customer is choosing between your product and a competitor.

Digital branding is the backbone of brand equity. By creating a positive reputation with your online presence, you begin to build equity and gain a competitive advantage.

What About Digital Brand Protection?

Of course, we can’t forget to mention how brand safety is an integral part of your digital branding. After spending countless hours and dollars building your digital brand, you don’t want your reputation to be tarnished by having an ad appear in an inappropriate location.

Brand safety is all about taking protective measures to safeguard your brand’s identity when it comes to advertisements. Brand safety and digital branding should always be side by side. As you design and build your brand online you want to ensure it aligns with your values to strengthen your connection with consumers and build trust.

Customer Recognition & Loyalty

In digital branding, recognition is everything. At work in this truism is the deep human desire to prefer the known over the unknown. And if you think that your thrill seeking lifestyle makes you exempt from brand loyalty, you’d better pump the breaks Speed Racer. A 2022 study found that a whopping 92% of adventure sports enthusiasts admitted to some level of brand loyalty. Familiarity denotes safety in the human brain, so when any consumer spots a recognizable brand in the wild, what they really see is a safe choice.  

Wrap all that human psychology up in a digtal-age obsession with identity and a safe choice can quickly become “the choice that defines me as an individual” or “me as a member of a tribe.”  It’s no wonder that the brands with the most brand equity also feature on the list of most valueable companies in the world.  

Bottom line: building your digital brand equity now sets you up for a strong future of easy recognition to gain new customers and fierce loyalty for existing customers.

Improve Company Values

The reputation you gain among consumers can also influence your organization internally. When you want consumers to trust your brand, you need to walk the walk and talk the talk. You can’t simply tell them to trust you, you need to show them why they should!

This means taking a hard look at your company values and how you want your brand to be perceived. Then, take actions to back them up.

Attract & Retain Top Talent

Brand equity comes into play yet again. Your digital brand presence goes beyond making sales, it can also affect how you attract talented new employees.

The modern job hunt is completed almost entirely online (bar networking). Job-seekers are searching the web for relevant positions and reading up on brands before submitting an application or accepting an offer. Even if you’ve recruited a candidate, chances are they’ve read up on your brand online.

Individuals looking for jobs will be more likely to apply for a job at a brand they recognize over one they don’t. Strong digital branding can also help you attract new hires across the board because they can get a sense of your company’s values and mission through your online content.

Mobile Phone

Essential Components of a Digital Mobile Brand

Creating a recognized digital brand is no small feat. It takes time, dedication and a cohesive strategy to break through the noise and capture consumer attention.

Consider this your digital branding checklist:

Clearly Recognize Yourself

The first thing you have to do when creating a digital brand is take a step back to understand who / what your brand is. After all, you can’t start to create meaningful connections with consumers if you don’t know what you stand for. It’s important to recognize where you stand in your industry, your values and the experiences your products or services provide to customers.

This is the critical first step that sets the foundation for your mobile digital branding.

Celebrate What Makes You Different

No matter if you’re a luxury handbag brand or a business that sells healthy lifestyle wearables, there are competitors in your market. Digital branding should help you create experiences that set your brand apart from the rest, so when given the choice between your product and a competitor's, a consumer would choose yours.

One way to help guide your digital branding is to identify and celebrate what makes your brand different. Maybe the quality of your products is better or perhaps you have unique initiatives that your competitors don’t.

Create Mission and Vision Statements for Your Brand

Next, it’s time to create a mission and vision statement for your brand. You’ve likely heard of the former, but what about the latter? The Society for Human Resource Management breaks things down in a helpful way:

A mission statement is a concise explanation of the organization's reason for existence and describes the organization's purpose and overall intention.

A vision statement looks forward and creates a mental image of the ideal state that the organization wishes to achieve.

As you can see, a vision statement is more inspirational and aspirational than a mission statement. Both are an important part of your digital branding and can ensure your messaging and marketing stays consistent across different digital platforms.

Build a Brand Story and Messaging

Then, it’s time to create your brand story and messaging. Ensure both align with your mission and vision statements to create a cohesive story. The story and messaging is what many customers will find online first, so it’s important that they’re accurate and representative of your values.

Know Your Audience

After you understand your mobile brand inside and out, it’s time to understand your audience. They can be broken down into buyer personas, but should also emphasize interactions and experiences over purchasing behavior.

You want to get to the root of what your audiences want to experience from your brand and how they feel about your brand.

Ask Questions to Your Customers

One of the best ways to understand your audience is to ask your customers questions. You can ask them directly how much they trust your brand or ask questions about how your product or service has benefitted them.

You can also use surveys to understand the types of digital channels they use the most and where they see your brand on mobile.You can truly tailor your questions to find out the answers you need to elevate your digital branding.

Consistency Is Key

Last but not least, we can’t forget to emphasize that consistency is the key to successful digital branding. The way your brand looks is ultimately what captures a consumer’s eye and helps them remember your brand. Choose your logo and colors carefully because it’s what people will ideally be remembering for the years to come.

Incorporate Your Company's Logo Into Everything You Do

And on that note, it should come as no surprise to include your brand’s logo in everything you do. From your websites and social media pages to cutting-edge mobile ads, your logo should always be included to help build your digital brand.

Who doesn’t love a good game?

From simple scratch-offs and word searches to more complex puzzles, we could all use a little more fun throughout the day. Especially when we’re endlessly scrolling online.

Today’s consumers crave entertainment and breaks from their usual mobile usage. They don’t care about static, basic images - in fact, they’ve become pros at glossing over page elements like banners and pop-ups they perceive as ads.

One way brands can break through the noise and engage with mobile users is advergaming. By combining compelling content with fun, interactive games, you can instantly connect users with your brand.

Get ready to be inspired with these facts about mobile advergaming along with some stellar advergame examples you can experience for yourself.

What is Advergaming: Everything you need to know

The mobile advergaming definition is as easy as that…or is it?

At its core, advergaming is truly a combination of traditional advertising and gaming. This form of advertising utilizes games to encourage consumer engagement and often rewards participation.

The gamification of mobile advertising offers a happy medium between branded ads and unique, engaging content in the form of online games audiences want to play. This advertising technique is great for driving engagement and can lead to direct conversions when participants are rewarded with coupons or discount codes.

And the best part is these mobile advergames don’t have to be overly complicated or flashy. You’re not competing with big-budget mobile games, but simply offering users some entertainment as they scroll through an article or website.

Many brands can market their product or service through advergames like:

  • Puzzles
  • Hidden Objects
  • Word Searches
  • Collecting Objects
  • Whack-a-mole
  • Spin the wheel
  • and many more...

Benefits of Advergaming

Don’t be fooled - advergaming is more than just fun and games.

Here are some facts about mobile advergaming that can’t be ignored.

Longer Exposure Time

When compared to other types of advertising, gamified ads are shown to have longer exposure time. In a recent report by Celtra, the organization found games advertising had the longest average exposure time (25.3 seconds) of all ad products.When you want your brand or product to be seen by consumers, an advergame is the best way to capture their attention for longer.

Higher Engagement Rates

Not only are advergames viewed for longer, but they also boast some of the best engagement rates. Don’t just take our word for it. See for yourself how gamified ads compare to videos, shoppable, and other ads.

It’s clear that consumers aren’t only seeing these advergames, but they actually want to engage with them.

While it’s safe to say most consumers enjoy games, utilizing advergaming is especially beneficial for engaging with a younger audience. As the experts at Forbes summarize, adding gamification elements to your content is a great way to keep Gen Z interacting with your brand.

This tech-native generation is extremely comfortable engaging with brands online and completing purchases fully through social media and ads. As this generation ages up to have more disposable income, it’s essential to use mobile advergaming to connect with them.

Image displaying an Engagement Chart

Improved Brand Awareness

Advergames are also perfect for building brand awareness. Because these ads are highly engaging and users spend more time interacting with them, they can help increase name recognition.

Of course, not all advergames are created equal. To build brand awareness with an advergame you need to ensure it’s memorable, branded, and user-friendly.

Less Intrusive Advertising

We get it, ads can be annoying.

Consumers are sick of flashy banner ads and annoying pop-ups they need to “x” out of. These types of ads are often viewed as being obnoxious since they disrupt their mobile experience. And the brands (and publishers) that use them can have their image tarnished by association.

On the other hand, advergames are often perceived to be neutral or non-intrusive. Since consumers are often gaining something from an advergame - whether that be entertainment or a reward - they have a more positive perception of it.

This impression can be further improved by using polite ad formats like interscrollers rather than pop-ups.

Challenges of Implementing Advergaming

Like with other forms of advertising, creating gamified ads doesn't come without its challenges. Here are a handful to keep in mind if you want to make compelling mobile advergames:

Connect with the right Audience:

Don’t create a game for the sake of fun. You need to make sure your mobile advergame connects with the right audience. For instance, a luxury handbag brand may have more success with an upscale word game while a candy company can have some more fun with a collecting object game.

There has also been criticism about how advergames (when done incorrectly) can target children who cannot distinguish between promotions and true play. Gamified ads don’t need to be dulled down. Make sure the games you create are appropriate for the audience you want to engage with.

Software Considerations:

There’s a log of leg work that goes on behind-the-scenes to release a stellar advergame. Most importantly, you need to consider mobile software. You want your advergame to be accessible on Google, Safari, etc.

Balancing Brand with Fun:

When creating a mini-game it can be easy to get lost in the fun of things. But it’s important to make sure your brand comes first. Finding the sweet spot between branding and gaming is key to a successful advergame, but is also more difficult than it sounds.

Which Brands Can Benefit from Advergaming?

The better question is which brands can’t benefit from advergaming

Advergames are incredibly versatile. From luxury brands to consumer product goods, you can create an engaging and on-brand advergame to connect with consumers. At MOBKOI, we’ve seen how gamified ads have benefitted food delivery companies, fashion brands, game franchises, candy companies, and more.

Celtra also researched how advergaming can benefit brands in the Banking & Insurance, Health & Pharmacy, Quick-Service Restaurants, and Non-Edible CPG space. Across the board, results were extremely positive. For instance...

VCR

89.4

%

Banking & Insurance

Gamified ads had the best VCR of all ad products

Exposure Time

108

s

Health & Pharmacy

had the longest exposure time of all ad products

Brands in the Hospitality, Food, and Beverage spaces can also benefit from these types of ads. Plus, they have the power to be more experimental with fun games that match their brand and products.

No matter the product or service you offer, an advergame can be tailored to your needs.

Advergame Examples That Inspire

Are you itching to try your hand at an advergame?

Remember that not all advergames are created equal. Coming up with a stand-out advergame takes the right mix of creativity, branding, and technology knowledge. Without one of these parts, your advergame can fall flat.

Strongbow GOAT Campaign

As you can experience for yourself, the advergame allows users to press play to initiate the game. It’s also a prime example of polite advertising. The 100% full-screen interscroller seamlessly appears as you scroll and can be easily dismissed if you choose to continue scrolling. It doesn’t abruptly disrupt the user experience like a pop-up ad.

The mobile advergame leverages a simple side-to-side controller so the user can move the goat’s head to collect falling berries. Simple rules and a scoring system are given to understand the objective of the game.

At the end of a quick 15-second game, the score is displayed. Users are told they “Are The G.O.A.T.'' and encouraged to “Drink The G.O.A.T”. It’s a simple but clear message that entices consumers to make a direct purchase of the product if they choose.

And even if users don’t make a purchase, the campaign is likely to stick with them. From the vibrant purple shade to the consistent and cheeky goat messaging, users are more likely to remember the Strongbow name

Experience an Advergame

If you’re ready to see a stellar advergame in action, try your hand at the Strongbow GOAT campaign.

Hover and scroll over the phone to reveal the game

OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen advergame in a mobile environment.

SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Time
iPhone Frame for Creative Demo

Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

What makes this advergame so great?

It prioritizes a good user experience.

An advergame must go through multiple tests and iterations to ensure it works seamlessly during its release. In this case, the Strongbow creative was tested across all mobile browsers and devices before it was released. There were some challenges to overcome with getting the controller functionality to work on Safari, which led the MOBKOI team to decide upon a different controller experience.

With a lot of hard work and collaboration, the finished product is certainly one to be proud of.

We’d say it’s a contender for the G.O.A.T. of advergames.

Final Thoughts

So, will advergaming be the future of interactive advertising?

It certainly is gaining traction for brands across a variety of verticals, but it may not be the best approach for all... it all depends on your audience, brand guidelines and campaign objectives.

One thing's for sure, when advergames are done right and strike the perfect balance between branding and fun, they are significantly more effective than your standard display ad.

In today’s mobile advertising landscape, tracking impressions and reach isn’t enough. Capturing the attention of consumers by creating an engaging mobile ad experience is the priority.

However, capturing consumer attention is easier said than done. People are using their mobile devices more than ever before, but their attention continues to dwindle.

Mastering attention-based advertising is the best way to ensure your mobile ads stand out against the rest. Read on for a deeper dive on the four key drivers of attention, so you can be on your way to mobile mastery.

Competing For Consumer Attention

The mobile web is a top attention-driving channel. In fact, the experts at eMarketer reported that mobile advertising is by far the preferred destination for digital ad spending in the U.S. On average, businesses spend almost 68% of their digital advertising budget on mobile and this trend will continue for years to come.

However, many mobile ad campaigns fail to capture consumer attention. Viewability is no doubt important because it gives marketers the base knowledge that their message can be seen by consumers and measures the number of times their ad is visible to users. What it doesn’t address is the attention the consumer is paying to the actual content.

Just because an ad is viewable and takes up ample screen real estate doesn’t mean it will be actively viewed by consumers. One joint study conducted by Lumen found that only 18% of viewable digital ads actually get looked at. This is why to truly master mobile advertising, brands must understand the basics of the attention economy.

Only

18

%

of viewable digital ads actually get looked at

Man looking at mobile phone

Attention Advertising 101

Consumers see thousands of ads a day across different channels. It would be impossible to engage with every ad they see, so they don’t. They have become experts at ignoring the irrelevant so they can give selective attention to what they see as important - or what breaks through the noise to capture their attention.

Attention is a new currency for advertisers. Ensuring consumers not only view ads, but actually absorb the messaging leads to other outcomes such as conversions and sales. Attention analytics can also empower marketers to optimize their outcome-based media buying. Rather than purchasing media on impressions or reach, marketers can make a buy based on the attention an ad campaign generates. This is often calculated as attentive seconds per 1,000 impressions.

Capitalizing on the attention economy starts with understanding the four key drivers of attention.

Four Key Drivers of Attention

Attention is tangible. Attention-based metrics can calculate the likelihood a consumer will respond to an ad. Advertisers can use these analytics to connect with consumers and enhance the performance of their campaigns.

Rather than spending money on campaigns and ad placements with the potential to be viewed, attention advertising focuses on creating and placing ads consumers can and want to engage with.

Here are four key drivers of attention to consider in today’s attention economy.

Size

It likely comes as no surprise that larger mobile ads are more likely to win attention. A small banner ad at the top of the screen is easily overlooked when compared to a full-screen ad. Additionally, a dynamic video format is more eye-catching than a static image.

When it comes to attention advertising, the first thing marketers should consider is screen real estate. This is the average percentage of pixels that the ad fills on the user’s screen.

Advertisers often choose between different ad formats. Mid-page units (MPUs) are a popular form of banner ads that is 300 pixels wide and 250 pixels high. This type of banner ad usually appears on either side of a webpage, and, as the name suggests, mid-page.

These types of ads have the potential to capture consumer attention as they scroll, but viewers are likely to be engaging with the surrounding content instead of the advertising. Whereas full-page ads are virtually unmissable.

Full-Screen Interscroller Ads

The appearance of a sudden static, full-screen ad can be jarring on a web page. Interscroller ads, however, capitalize on size without drastically disrupting the consumer’s mobile experience. These ads reveal the ad content as the reader scrolls down the visited page. When the user scrolls to reveal 85% of the placement, it can snap to take over the entire screen.

The user can opt-out of the screen simply by scrolling to dismiss the ad, but a consumer is more likely to engage with it because it takes up the entire screen – especially if the creative is well designed and compelling.

Experience our Ads

Hover and scroll over the phone to reveal an Interscroller Ad

OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen Interscroller Ad in a mobile environment.

SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Time
iPhone Frame for Creative Demo

Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

Time

Similarly, it makes sense that the longer an ad is in view, the more likely it is to be seen by consumers. Research from Microsoft found that today’s consumer attention span is only eight seconds. However, the same Lumen study as previously mentioned found that the average engagement with a digital ad is only 1.2 seconds, across both static and video formats.

In the attention economy, advertisers have little over a second to capture a consumer’s already short attention span.

The average viewing is

1.2

s

across both static and video formats

Group of teenagers looking at mobile devices

Not only does the time an ad is in view matter, but so does attentive time. Again, just because an ad is in view for a certain amount of seconds doesn’t mean a consumer is paying attention to it. Eye tracking technology is a great way to measure this important attention metric, also known as eyes-on view time.

Attention advertising focuses on making the most of consumer attention span by designing creative campaigns and ensuring they take up the right amount of space and time.

Context

Context is key when it comes to media planning, but is especially important for mobile advertising.

An advertiser can place hundreds of ads across different websites, but if they’re not relevant to the brand, they won’t perform well. They must be strategic about placing ads on pages or within articles that make sense. For instance, an ad for athletic shoes would perform better on a news article about running rather than on a blog about home renovations.

In a broader sense, it’s also important to meet consumers where they are more likely to engage with ads. An MPU on The Times would garner much more attention than one served on eBay. Simply put, consumers are more willing to engage with ads on a trusted news source while they scroll than while they’re navigating through the wild west of online shopping space.

Creative

Finally, we can’t overlook possibly the most important driver of attention: the creative. An advertiser can craft a perfect media strategy, but without strong creative, the ad is unlikely to make a big impact.

With size, time, and context in mind, it’s essential to invest in cutting-edge creative to stand out against other ads. Video or moving ads are often more engaging than a static image. With advancements in technology, advertisers can also utilize augmented reality, virtual reality, gamification, and other interactive elements to get a user’s attention.

By focusing on all four drivers of attention, advertisers can enhance how consumers interact with mobile ads.

Tale of Two Brands

When brands take an attention-based approach to mobile advertising, they see results.

In a small-scale study with Lumen Research, MOBKOI found how attention advertising with these best practices in mind benefitted a Luxury Retailer and a Multinational Energy Company.

Lumen uses eye tracking to understand the reality of attention to advertising across media. Lumen eye tracking works by logging eye movement and periods of “fixation” to create a consistent measurement of consumer attention and campaign results.

By utilizing eye-tracking and surveying of opted-in panel participants, Lumen evaluated how much attention and brand recall MOBKOI formats generated for these brands and how performance compared to benchmarks.

Here are the results.

Eye tracking technology example

Unmissable Ads Increase Eyes-On View Time

MOBKOI’s approach to mobile advertising keeps the four drivers of attention in mind. The mobile ads MOBKOI created for these brands were integrated within contextually targeted articles and took over the entire screen. The ads for the Luxury Retailer and Multinational Energy Company were unmissable and were available to be seen for at least 5.4 seconds.

With MOBKOI’s full-screen ads, the Luxury Retailer and Multinational Energy Company both had a majority of individuals view their ads for at least 1 second. That’s 2.4 - 3x more than the norm for a standard mobile display ad.

Thats

2

-

3

s

more than thestandard mobile display ad

Two girls holding mobile phones

MOBKOI mobile ads take over a larger percentage of screen real estate, so there is less chance of viewers being engaged with anything else while the ad is in view. With a focus on size and time, both creatives kept viewers interested for nearly double what would be expected from an outstream video or mobile display ad.

Premium Mobile Formats Raise Brand Awareness

Both brands achieved significantly higher recall scores than the norm with MOBKOI mobile ads. The Multinational Energy Company even generated brand recall amongst individuals who were not aware of the brand before the study.

When consumers are able to recall a brand after viewing an ad, we know it captured their attention. Within brand recall, there are two categories:

  • Spontaneous brand recall is the ability of a respondent in advertising research to remember without the prompt of any audio or visual stimuli.
  • Prompted brand recall is the ability of a respondent in advertising research to remember when prompted with audio or visual stimuli.

Brand recall is the best way to validate attention measurement. Both types of recall are good news for brands, but spontaneous brand recall is the most impactful.

With MOBKOI mobile ads, the Multinational Energy Company experienced 2.7x better spontaneous recall when compared to traditional mobile ad displays. The Luxury Retailer performed even better, with 3.5x the average spontaneous recall.

Prompted recall results were even more promising. The Multinational Energy Company and Luxury Retailer outperformed mobile display norms by 2.5x and 4.2x respectively.

These results show how MOBKOI formats are extremely effective at raising brand awareness across industries.

Compelling Creative Improves Brand Lift

The MOBKOI formats also minimized noticeable levels of spontaneous or prompted brand misattribution to competitors. MOBKOI ads focused on engaging creative, with the Luxury Retailer emphasizing imagery rather than text to capture consumers attention for longer.

By using a mix of compelling creative, sizing, and contextual alignment, MOBKOI formats advertised the two brands very effectively. This contributed to an improved brand lift. Rather than focusing on traditional metrics such as clicks or views, brand lift is an attention metric that measures an ads’ impact on the perception of the brand.

The combination of longer active viewing and enhanced brand recall make it clear these ads were effective at connecting with consumers.

MOBKOI Data Analytics Brand Lift

Master Attention Advertising with MOBKOI

It’s clear that premium mobile formats that focus on attention metrics are top performers – even compared to ads in other channels, such as social media. When it comes to attentive seconds per 1,000 impressions, MOBKOI’s full-screen formats significantly outperformed Facebook mobile infeed ads, Instagram mobile infeed, and Outstream video mobile norm.

Attention measurement of MOBKOI ads vs ads in other channels

With these insights in mind, marketers should consider the attention-driving potential of the mobile web before shifting more budget into other channels. While it’s undeniable that social media can help brands reach a wider audience, it’s still difficult to capture the attention of users as they mindlessly scroll through their newsfeed. Investing in premium ads on the mobile web is a sure-fire way to reach consumers in engaging environments where they are reading articles or searching for information.

With a firm understanding of attention drivers, cutting-edge creative, and granular reporting, MOBKOI has the trifecta needed to help brands master attention advertising.

Make your mobile ads stand out and capitalize on the attention economy with MOBKOI.

In a relatively short time, mobile devices have become ubiquitous and mobile usage has transformed into an all-consuming experience. Today, the estimated time spent on mobile in the US is up to 4 hours and 29 minutes.  According to Insider Intelligence, mobile usage will account for 35% of total media time in 2023.

The statistics are staggering and the message is clear. Consumers are living on their phones and experiencing extreme content overload. What does this mean for advertisers? Read on to get the scoop and key recommendations on how to stop the scroll from our session during Advertising Week NYC.

The Takeaway: People don’t ignore all ads, they ignore bad ads.

A 2019 Marketing Week study conducted in the UK found that only 11% of the population surveyed said that they liked ads. The other 89% either said they didn’t really care or they simply disliked them. To say it’s apparent that consumers have had enough of the standard  banner ad is an understatement. What this study did not observe, however, was how people perceive standard ads compared to more innovative and immersive ad experiences.

During the Adweek session, our CEO Suzanne Spence presented findings from a recent study we conducted with Lumen Research. Not surprisingly, the study found that people viewed full-screen, interactive mobile ads 3x longer than standard mobile display ads. Brand recall rates for the full-screen ads were also 3-4x the mobile display norm.

With today’s technology, advertisers can create better ad experiences that lead to higher attention, longer engagement, and more meaningful connections between brands and people.  

Full-screen, interactive mobile ads #FTW

AR, VR, and other hyper-engaging forms of mobile advertising are becoming all the more common among brands that want to stand out in the clutter and increase performance. In fact, through a recent analysis of our client’s campaigns, we found that video ads with interactive features achieved a 53% boost in engagement compared to standard video ads.

Of course, the ideal format for interactive mobile ads is the full-screen interscroller, as it provides a larger canvas for creative innovation. This point was echoed by co-presenter and MOBKOI partner, Alyce Panico of the Luxe Collective Group during the Adweek session. Alyce went on to explain that her agency analyzed hundreds of campaigns and identified a few key units that consistently perform well for clients', including the interscroller, bespoke units, and vertical and in-line video. Moreover, she emphasized that creatives with clear directives and KPIs are sure winners.

What is the Interscroller?

Interscrollers are ads that reveal the ad content as the reader scrolls down the visited page. When the user scrolls to reveal 85% of the placement, it can snap to take over the entire screen. The user can opt out of the screen simply by scrolling to dismiss the ad.

Experience our Ads

Hover and scroll over the phone to reveal an Interscroller Ad

OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen Interscroller Ad in a mobile environment.

SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Time
iPhone Frame for Creative Demo

Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

Steps to start winning more attention on mobile

In summary of our Adweek session, the following are key steps advertisers should take to create better mobile ads and rise to the top in the attention economy.

Define what success looks like and align on expectations:

If you want to build hyper-engaging mobile ads, the first step is determining and aligning on campaign goals. Defining goals will help you map out the path your consumers will take from the first interaction to the conversion. This path will inform your ad creative, and time frame of the campaign, and allow you to track your results more effectively.

Think about ads as experiences:

Don’t be in the business of creating ads. Instead, focus on entertaining and delighting your audience with unique experiences that stand out in the clutter. Remember, interactivity is the key to boosting engagement.

Find the right partners to execute:

Collaborate with partners that have already done the legwork to make your ad experiences a reality. Our expertise at MOBKOI is tech-enabled mobile ad innovation. We have spent nearly a decade honing our craft and know the right technologies and techniques that work on the mobile platform (so you don’t have to).

Learn and iterate:

In order to innovate, it is critical that advertisers have the right reporting mechanisms in place to quickly and easily analyze performance as campaigns run. Moreover, advertisers should look beyond viewability to more powerful and actionable metrics like attention to truly understand how ads are resonating and driving business outcomes.

Top brands, from luxury fashion to fast food, are testing NFTs as a new and interesting way to engage and transact with consumers.

What is an NFT? In short, a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items, and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency or paired with a purchase of a physical product.

While NFTs have been around for years, the novel technology has only recently gained mainstream traction. As such, there are three critical components of a successful NFT launch: Top brands, from luxury fashion to fast food, are testing NFTs as a new and interesting way to engage and transact with consumers.

  • A relevant and informed audience

  • Educational content explaining what NFTs are and why they are worth buying.

  • Transparent reporting and insights for optimization.

For brands looking to offer NFTs as part of a digital campaign, the following are key creative and media best practices to ensure success.

Reach the right audiences where they are spending the most time

There is a lot to learn about the world of NFTs and the mobile web is where most people get their information. In fact, according to the latest research from Statista, consumers spend more than half of their online time browsing the web from their mobile phones.

A contextually targeted mobile web campaign is a great avenue to reach consumers who are reading about NFTs with a high potential to engage and make a purchase. Whether you are looking to reach NFT and Crypto enthusiasts or broader tech-savvy audiences, contextual targeting will ensure you reach the right people in the places where they are most engaged.

Leverage creative formats designed for education and interaction

An NFT campaign might require more messaging than a standard brand or product awareness campaign.

Full-screen mobile ad formats offer brands more real estate to design creatives for education and interaction. Bespoke units with content cards or sophisticated dress-an-avatar functionality, for example, are ideal creatives that consumers can interact with to explore NFTs in more depth.

Our team of creative maestros has the data and expertise to execute the best formats and creative functionality for impactful NFT promotion.

Experience an NFT Ad

Hover and scroll over the phone to reveal a NFT Ad

OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen NFT Ad in a mobile environment.

SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Time
iPhone Frame for Creative Demo

Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

Optimize with Transparent and Granular Reporting

With marketing budgets tightening in the face of economic uncertainty, it is more critical than ever that media dollars are accounted for and maximized.

Marketing stakeholders should have granular visibility into where ads are running and full-funnel metrics  – from viewability and attention to click-through. This level of transparency will ensure media spend is not wasted on undesirable impressions and campaign performance is optimized toward KPIs.

Going above and beyond the industry standard, MOBKOI offers full site-list transparency and granular performance reporting for each and every campaign that goes out the door. With our custom-event reporting, for example, you can even uncover the NFTs in your collection with the highest engagement and click-through rates.

NFT Collection Card OneNFT Collection Card TwoNFT Collection Card ThreeNFT Collection Card FourNFT Collection Card Five

Only with MOBKOI can brands execute top-quality mobile ads at scale, with granular transparency into delivery and performance at every stage of the campaign lifecycle.

3 Things You Need to Know

The future of mobile advertising isn’t decades down the line, it’s here today.

Mobile advertisements are continually evolving to fight for space and consumer attention. Set your mobile advertising strategy up for success by creating engaging content today. Read on to learn more about the future of mobile advertising and how your business can stay ahead of the trends to capture consumer attention.

What Holds the Key to the Future of Mobile Advertising?

Decades ago, mobile advertising may have taken up a sliver of a business's marketing budget. Today, it’s a multi-billion dollar market

With mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets now ubiquitous, the mobile advertising market is experiencing incredible growth. The team at Insider Intelligence recently reported that the U.S. mobile ad market will reach $168.88 billion in 2022, accounting for 67.9% of total digital ad spend. By 2026, it is predicted that mobile creative ad spend will reach $247.68 billion.

The growth in mobile advertising is, in large part, due to changing consumer habits. For many years, mobile devices were primarily used for communication or entertainment. Consumers would use their computers for online shopping, checking emails, and web surfing. Businesses adapted their digital marketing to reach their audiences on these online channels.

Flash forward a handful of years, and online behavior has drastically changed. Gallup performed some recent studies around this shift in how mobile users are interacting with their devices. In 2015, 11% of individuals used their smartphones more than their computers to make online purchases. Today, that number is 42%. There were also 23- to 25-point increases in Americans' reliance on smartphones for browsing the internet, comparing prices, and managing finances.

This means there are more opportunities than ever to invest in mobile advertising to connect with these mobile users in new ways. The future of mobile web advertising is promising, but it requires organizations to treat it as a separate, integral part of their digital marketing strategy.

11

%

of individuals use their smartphone vs computers to make a purchase

Men looking at mobile phone

Benefits and Challenges of Mobile Advertising

Mobile marketing is one of the fastest-growing markets in the advertising industry. It undeniably has the potential to be a highly engaging and profitable channel for business, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to master.

Here are a handful of the benefits and challenges of mobile marketing to keep in mind.

Benefits of Mobile Advertising

Connect With More Consumers

For the majority of consumers, their mobile device is their lifeline. It’s how they communicate, shop, unwind, read the news, and work. A study from this year found that, on average, Americans check their phones 344 times per day. To further contextualize that, that’s once every 4 minutes.

Needless to say, mobile advertising allows businesses to reach a larger audience where they are the most - their smartphone.

Relevant Mobile Creative

Not only does mobile advertising help businesses cast a wider net, but it can also be tailored to different audiences based on factors such as their interests and online behavior. Contextual mobile web advertising allows businesses to connect with the right audiences at the right time.

Opportunities for Creative Campaigns

Mobile advertising also allows businesses and agencies to be more creative with their campaigns. Capturing consumer attention online is no small feat, so being strategic and creative to stand out among the noise is a must.

Developments in gamification advertising, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) mobile advertising are especially promising as we will cover in more detail shortly.

Challenges of Mobile Advertising

Fragmented Consumer Attention

Though consumers are spending more time than ever before on their smartphones, it’s increasingly difficult for advertisers to grab their attention. One of the most comprehensive studies on attention by Microsoft found that people have an attention span of a mere 8 seconds.

Yes, that’s less than the attention span of a goldfish.

While there are plenty of opportunities to place mobile ads in front of consumers, it’s up to advertisers to capitalize on these micro-moments rather than let them pass. Static banner ads simply won’t capture fragmented consumer attention, so marketers must be more creative.

Brand Safety and transparency

Where brands place their mobile ads matters – one study found that “67% of consumers are likely to engage with an ad on the website of a publisher they know and trust.”

Agencies can create brilliant mobile creative but, if it’s not placed on relevant and trusted websites, it will not perform. In other cases, running ads on sites with explicit content or with content that does not align with brand values can damage a brand’s reputation.

The same study mentioned above found that more than half of consumers surveyed are more likely to engage with an ad when it is placed with relevant surrounding content. Contextual targeting can be challenging, especially for businesses that are new to mobile advertising. However, the payoff is having the right ads placed in front of the right audience at the right time leading to increased engagement.

That’s why MOBKOI only runs ads on premium sites in premium inventory. Going above and beyond the industry standard, MOBKOI offers full site-list transparency and granular reporting to every client to ensure brand safety and optimal performance for each campaign.

Privacy

The world of mobile advertising is always changing, but privacy and security concerns are always top of mind. It’s important for businesses and agencies to collect consumer data ethically to provide relevant mobile ad experiences.

For years, marketers relied on third-party cookies for cross-channel audience identification. These bite-sized pieces of data would be exchanged between advertisers and contain personal identifiers as consumers browse the web. Cookies have always been controversial due to the privacy concerns they raise.

This is why Google announced they would phase out the third-party cookie on Chrome browsers by 2024 (though this timeline can continue to change). In Google’s words, the decision to phase out cookies is to make the web more private and secure for users, while also supporting publishers.

What Does the Future of Mobile Marketing Look Like?

With marketing budgets tightening in the face of economic uncertainty, it is more critical than ever that media dollars are accounted for and maximized.

Marketing stakeholders should have granular visibility into where ads are running and full-funnel metrics  – from viewability and attention to click-through. This level of transparency will ensure media spend is not wasted on undesirable impressions and campaign performance is optimized toward KPIs.

Going above and beyond the industry standard, MOBKOI offers full site-list transparency and granular performance reporting for each and every campaign that goes out the door. With our custom-event reporting, for example, you can even uncover the NFTs in your collection with the highest engagement and click-through rates.

Gamification Advertising

The experts at Forbes summarize it best: Gamification makes ads more compelling. Essentially, gamification advertising replaces stagnant ads with interactive experiences that encourage (and often reward) participation.

These types of mobile ads are typically fun, branded games, like whack-a-mole and puzzles or finding a hidden object, or completing a scratch-off. This drives engagement and can lead to direct conversations, especially when rewards like coupons are given for participation. Time and time again, gamification advertising is shown to increase conversion rates compared to standard ads.

Creative Demo Frame
Creative Demo Frame

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Mobile Advertising

AR and VR are two other trends in mobile advertising. AR advertising or AR mobile advertising utilizes technology to superimpose a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. It allows users to see how a piece of furniture would look in their space or how a watch would look on their wrist.

VR advertising or VR mobile advertising, on the other hand, creates a completely virtual, immersive experience for consumers. It can make for more interactive ad experiences and even allow consumers to interact with products in a virtual setting.

All of these types of mobile ads help generate attention and engagement, however, they are not always easy to implement. Relying on expert help is one of the best ways to implement cutting-edge mobile ads quickly and efficiently.

Context is Queen

With content as king, context is undoubtedly the queen. You simply can’t have one without the other. As we alluded to before, agencies can create amazing mobile advertising content, but if it’s irrelevant, it will not perform.

For example, you don’t want an advertisement for a luxury handbag appearing on a fast-fashion website. Similarly, an ad for female skin care shouldn’t be placed in an article for men’s grooming.

Contextual targeting is extremely important, and the need for relevant ad placement only grows with the deprecation of third-party cookies. Cookies will be obsolete in the near future, and they’re already falling out of fashion today. It’s essential that mobile marketers rely on contextual mobile advertising rather than  third-party data to future-proof their media plans.

Eliminating Media Waste

Finally, it’s important to address trends in media waste. Too often, advertisers take the approach of quantity over quality for mobile advertising. They may run ads across many websites but overlook important factors such as context and, of course, ad placement.

Wasted ad spend is an area advertisers want to solve immediately, but may not know how. For instance, recent studies found that nearly two-thirds of location-targeting advertising spend may be wasted because of poor quality data and mistargeted location impressions. The same can be true for mobile advertisements that are placed on non-desirable websites or in front of the wrong audiences.

These instances, or when ads are poorly placed on a website, translate to wasted impressions. Eliminating wasted impressions requires securing premium mobile media placements and gaining full transparency into where ads are running.

Interscroller Mobile Ads

The placement of a mobile ad often dictates how the user will engage with it. A banner ad, for example, is easily overlooked even if it’s gamified. As is a static sidebar ad or mobile experience that becomes cut off as a user scrolls.

Consider utilizing interscroller ads. These ads reveal the content as the reader scrolls down a visited page. When the user scrolls to reveal 85% of the placement, the ad snaps to take over the entire screen and the user’s attention. While the user can simply scroll to dismiss the ad, it’s one of the best ways to place their full attention on the creative.

Advertisers can eliminate wasted media spend by focusing on premium inventory. Invest in ad formats that are full-screen and unmissable without being overwhelming. This shift is already being seen in the media industry with publishers prioritizing the user experience. According to Bloomberg, “more publishers recognize the need to design their websites to prioritize readers, rather than over-stuff pages full of ad slots, if they hope to generate reader revenue.”

It happened again.

You’re unwinding at the end of a long workday scrolling through your favourite websites, and there it is... An annoying ad for something you definitely don’t have an interest in. You search for a barely visible button to close the ad and try to move on with your browsing…

If you’ve been seeing more “bad” digital ads, you’re not alone. The New York Times recently reported how the digital ad landscape is becoming more cluttered and irrelevant than ever before. Now imagine if instead of a clunky pop-up ad, you simply scrolled and a sleek, interactive ad experience appeared. Not only is it visually appealing and non-disruptive, but it’s also tailored to your interests and offers unique interactive elements that spark your curiosity.

These types of display ads aren’t some farfetched fantasy, they’re already being used by brands to improve engagement and brand lift. Not only do they create an amazing experience for users, but they also help brands maximize the impact of their campaigns.

Ultimately, the potential of modern display ads is endless. Join us as we explore the benefits of different types of display ads for brands like yours.

3 Types of Display Ads You Need to Utilize

When it comes time to choose from types of display ads, brands are spoiled with choices. From the standard banner ads and interscroller ads to elongated skyscraper ads, there are plenty to choose from.

But not all display ads are created equal. Many popular types of desktop display ads simply don’t work as well on mobile and vice versa. It’s time for brands to turn to ‘engagement’-oriented types of display ads and utilize attention-based metrics, like view time, to help their ads stand out in the current attention economy.

Let’s explore three types of display ads and how they can benefit brand exposure and lift.

Interscroller Ads Increase Viewability, Attention and Engagement

Basic banner ads are a thing of the past.

The Interscroller is a highly visible, hyper-engaging digital ad format that is ideal for grabbing consumer attention without disrupting their experience or the content. It works by revealing content as a reader scrolls down a visited page. When the user scrolls to reveal 85% of the placement, it can snap to take over the entire screen.

Unlike interstitial ads, these types of ads integrate with content seamlessly and aren’t intrusive. They prioritize the user experience and offer ample room for creativity.

These polite, full-screen ads are unmissable, and interscroller ad specs can perfectly fit the size of a mobile screen. When paired with engaging creative, like interactive drag and drop, these ads are ideal for standing out from the junk and improving engagement.

Interscroller

Unibanner Enhances the User Experience

There are also formats like the Unibanner, which will have sizing breaks. This means that once the site it is on changes size, so will the dimensions of the mobile ad. For instance, you can see this by playing around with the size of your web browser on your laptop screen.

For mobile, this ensures the ad size fits a variety of browsers to create a seamless user experience across different browsers. You can have peace of mind that your cutting-edge creative designs will look flawless on any browser and be as eye-catching as you intended them to be.

MPU

Double Mid-page Unit (DMPU) Wins Attention

Size is one of the key drivers of attention. Larger mobile ads, such as the interscroller and DMPU, are more likely to win attention – especially when utilizing interactive features.

Sometimes called a half-page unit, this type of display ad often appears along the left or right side of a web page on a desktop. Keeping DMPUs closer to the top of the page or above the fold offers the best visibility and plenty of room for creativity.

The creative options for this format are endless. Since it’s so large, save some of your most daring creative for these units that are sure to make an impact and capture attention.

DMPU

Pro Tip!

Responsive Ads Increase Click-Through-Rate

Google defines responsive ads as those that automatically adjust their size, appearance, and format to fit available ad spaces. Simply put, a single responsive ad may appear as a small text ad in one place and a large image ad in another.

These types of display ads respond to the size of the device it’s on. It’s the primary way desktop and mobile display ads are designed. You can also find some formats that respond to different phone sizes to ensure the visual is always fullscreen on mobile.

Time and time again responsive ads are proven to improve click-through rates and even conversions, according to Google. These smart ads are eye-catching to relevant users and optimal for marketers. For instance, a responsive display ad can showcase your creative as a banner ad on one site and an interactive double mid-page unit (DMPU) on another to maximize its impact.

Best Practices for Using These Types of Display Ads

Digital advertising is always evolving. Clunky, obstructive ad types like expanded text ads are no longer supported as publishers prioritize user-friendly and relevant content instead.

Modern marketers should make the shift to more engaging and impactful digital ad experiences to stay ahead of the curve and rise above the noise. The move to outcome-based marketing is an important step to gain a holistic picture of how your campaign performed and, more importantly, how consumers engaged with and perceive your brand.

Here are some other best practices to consider when developing a campaign leveraging digital display ads.

Focus on Campaign Goals

To choose the best types of display ads for your campaign, you should outline what you want to achieve. Common KPIs range across engagement metrics, click-through rates, conversions, and awareness.

Attention and engagement metrics, like view time or engagement rate, are some of the most important. Let’s take a look at some popular ‘engagement’-oriented units and the goals they achieve:

Drag & Drop

Enhance a standard shoppable or gallery unit by encouraging users to drag and drop different elements on screen. Check out this eye-catching example from Prada.

Creative Demo Frame
Creative Demo Frame

Tap & Hold

Add an attention-grabbing engagement feature to a simple unit. The best part about this unit is that you can choose from a few different actions to make your ad stand out. This includes Magnify, X-Ray, Tap & Hold to Transition, Tap & Hold and more.

Tap

Similarly, you can also have consumers engage with your mobile ad with a simple tap. This instantly expands the capabilities of the unit in a way that’s super easy for a consumer to understand.

Creative Demo Frame
Creative Demo Frame

Selector

An engaging alternative to your standard shoppable ad. This unit empowers consumers to select different colors, shapes, and styles to find what they like. Take a look at this interactive Louis Vuitton ad.

Controller

Add this feature to your display unit to allow for further exploration. Let consumers explore every corner of your ad at their own pace. Try it for yourself!

Creative Demo Frame

Utilize Tech

To ensure your campaign is a success, it’s important to incorporate tech-enabled features that align with your goals. For instance, if sales lift is the ultimate goal, an engaging shoppable display ad is ideal. If you want to increase foot traffic, incorporating a Nearby & Locators feature can help guide customers to your store.

Also, keep in mind that consumers are more likely to interact with ads that have animation than those that are static. Hootsuite reports that even using the simple carousel ad format generated a 61% lift in click-through rate compared to other ad types. It’s always best to use videos and animation to catch the consumer's attention and guide them through the information on screen.

Blend of Formats

All these types of display ads work better together! For example, combining full-screen interscroller ads with other formats, such as MPUs or standard IAB desktop formats, allows you to increase scale and reach different types of consumers throughout their journey across devices.

Pro Tip!

Display ads can work if you put in the work. Save time and hassle by partnering with a full-service company that can curate the right media plan, creative and blend of formats for optimal performance and scale.

The Artistry of Selling Joy:
Hyper-Engaging Holiday Ad Types for Retailers

The most wonderful time of the year is also one of the busiest for advertisers and creatives.

It’s nearly impossible to miss the slew of flashy holiday ads across every medium. From jazzy radio jingles and mailers decked out in red and green to highly anticipated commercials that only come out this time of year. And, of course, we can’t forget to mention the endless opportunities for creative digital ads during the holiday shopping season.

Holiday ads are a chance to truly showcase your creativity, not to mention capitalize on increased consumer spending. However, crafting the perfect holiday shopping ads on mobile and desktop is truly an art form.

You don’t want your holiday ad campaigns to blend into the background. You need hyper-engaging ads that stand out, resonate with consumers, and are aligned with your brand.

Now is the time to start planning your holiday ads, and we’re here to help with the top creative ideas for holiday mobile campaigns that will cut through the clutter and drive attention!

‘Twas the Strategy Before Christmas

It’s no secret that holiday marketing campaigns can be incredibly lucrative for businesses large and small. After all, eMarketer found that holiday sales grew by 4.8% last year, and the experts expect a similar gain of 4.5% for the 2023 holiday season.

To put that in perspective, that is over $1.3 trillion in consumer spending that occurs over only a few months time.

Over the past decade, eCommerce has also carved out its space in sales. Online shopping is a convenient way for holiday shoppers to compare deals, find gifts, and get them sent directly to their homes without having to fight through hectic crowds. So it comes as no surprise that eCommerce is predicted to account for almost 20% of sales this holiday season, according to the same eMarketer report.

Of that 20%, a large portion will likely come exclusively from mobile devices. Last year, TechCrunch reported that a record 48% of all e-commerce sales on Black Friday were made on smartphones. That was already up 4% from 2021, and the role of mobile devices in eCommerce will likely grow again this year (and maybe even make up the majority of online holiday sales).

48

%

of all E-Commerce Sales on Black Friday were made on smartphones

Image of man buying something on a mobile phone

Creative holiday ads are extremely important to advertisers. It’s a way to showcase creativity and stand out from the competition, all while engaging with customers in a new way. Especially when it comes to meeting consumers where they’re shopping online.

Increasing Ad Spend During the Holiday Season

Does it seem like there are more ads during the holiday season? Though it may seem like you can’t escape the holiday spirit on every medium, the number of ads you’re seeing may not be increasing.

While many companies ramp up their holiday campaigns and you may start seeing more social media posts and mailers, there is not a lot of wiggle room when it comes to increasing ad units. The number of commercials, billboards, and, yes, digital ads, remain the same. After all, there’s no way to make more space or time for these types of ads in a way that wouldn’t frustrate consumers.

This makes competition fierce. Advertisers are still fighting for the same amount of ad space, but the stakes are higher. And not to mention that ad units cost more during the holiday season due to this demand.

However, it’s still recommended to increase ad spend during the holiday season. It is estimated that metrics increase across the board this time of year. Specifically, click-through rates rise by 100%, direct traffic increases by 150%, the average order value grows by 30%, and conversion rates go up by 60%

Click-Through Rates Rise by

100

%

Direct Traffic Increases by

150

%

Average Order Value Grows by

30

%

Conversion Rates go up by

60

%

Increasing ad spend this time of year can result in great, measurable returns for advertisers. After all, standing out from the competition with brilliant creative is a challenge year-round. During the holidays, making a big impact on a small screen is even more of a feat. Pairing premium ad units with hyper-engaging creative is key to winning attention on mobile.

Unwrapping the Components of a Successful Holiday Ad

Every advertiser wants their ad to be the one that’s remembered and talked about this holiday season. Even though these ads are often geared toward holiday gifts and sales, it doesn’t mean other industries can’t get in on the Christmas cheer.

Just think of the iconic ads for Coca-Cola or M&M that come out each season. Even auto and fashion brands get in on the holiday cheer with their Christmas campaigns. While these brands may not be selling toys, they are selling joy (and often advertising sales) during the holidays. It’s the perfect chance to secure more customer loyalty and stay top of mind with consumers.

These big brands have mastered holiday-themed ads, and so can yours when you understand the not-so-secret formula (hint: it’s not just about showcasing sales in all your ads).

While holiday ads may feel like the perfect opportunity to show off flashy Black Friday deals and holiday sales, it’s simply not what consumers want to see. According to Ad Age, just 31% of U.S. adults want to see marketing about economic themes like price and value, and just 28% want to see messaging about sales and promotional events.

Instead, most consumers want to see “seasonally appropriate ads.” The survey found that 49% of shoppers want festive ads, 43% want funny, 36% want heartfelt, and 34% want nostalgia. Creating a digital ad that plays on a few of these themes can give your creative a leg up.

As you can see, it’s better to showcase Santa Claus in your ads rather than sales. While pricing is important, it shouldn’t be at the forefront of your creative marketing strategy. Instead, it’s about combining cutting-edge creative with holiday cheer.

The Festive Formula in Action: Engaging Holiday Ad Examples

Every year, only a few holiday ads are the ones that really stand out. While you can ensure your digital ads are festive and funny, you can also make them more engaging with the right formats.

Here’s some holiday inspiration to help you kickstart your seasonal campaigns. Consider it an early Christmas gift.

Shoppable Ads

Units designed to provide a shoppable experience are ideal for generating eCommerce sales. The convenience of these ads is unbeatable, allowing shoppers to add items to their cart directly from an ad.

These holiday shopping ads are great for showcasing products and adding festive or fun elements. Plus, they provide advertisers with plenty of insight into performance without forcing the user to jump through hoops.

Experience our Ads

Hover and scroll over the phone to reveal a Shoppable Ad

OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen Shoppable Ad in a mobile environment.

SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Time
iPhone Frame for Creative Demo

Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
Creative Demo Frame

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented reality is another way to take your holiday market ad to the next level. AR has been a trend in digital marketing for the last few years, and it’s certainly not slowing down.

This immersive mixed-reality experience allows consumers to view a product in their own space. They can gain a 360 view of a toy or how a new ornament would look on their Christmas tree. It’s perfect for the more indecisive shopper or someone who wants a more personalized online shopping experience to ensure a product matches their aesthetic.

Swipe to Like

Even loyal customers can face decision paralysis, especially during the holidays. This creative type makes for a great holiday ad by allowing consumers to explore products by swiping left and right, with the final choice displayed on the end card to help with the decision-making process.

Of course, these are just a handful of examples of hyper-engaging holiday ad ideas. Depending on your brand and your goals, bespoke display ads, gamified ads, or virtual reality may work best for your holiday ad campaigns.

Creative Demo Frame
Creative Demo Frame

Countdown

For many consumers, the build-up to the holiday season is just as fun as the day itself. Seeing those first seasonal items hit the shelves at their favorite retailers and supermarket chains can heighten the anticipation for more holiday fun to come.

Digital advertisers can also get in on building excitement with countdown ads. A live countdown timer can help create buzz before the start of the big holiday sale or a special holiday product drops.

Experts agree that by the end of summer, and at least by September, advertisers should be thinking about their campaigns and making plans to turn their creative holiday ads into reality.

Recently, eMarketer reported that half of consumers (50%) expect to start their holiday shopping before the calendar turns to November. The time to begin ramping up holiday ad campaigns to capitalize on consumer spending is now. After all, other major shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be here sooner than you think.

Download our Black Friday and Holiday one-pager for more ideas on how we can bring your holiday ads to life.

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The auto industry is geared up for transformation, and you don’t want your business to be left in the dust.

It’s no secret that the car industry is facing unprecedented changes. More and more customers are taking the digital highway to car buying – going as far as purchasing their new cars from their mobile phones. And while it may feel safer to hit the brakes, it’s time to accelerate your marketing efforts to pull forward in this highly competitive marketplace.

So, buckle up and join us for a thrilling ride to guide you through the twists and turns of effective auto advertising formats. See how you can add mobile ads to your marketing mix and reach modern automotive consumers.

Changing Landscape of the Auto Industry

When it comes to ad spend, the automotive industry dominates. eMarketer predicts that digital ad spending for the automotive industry will grow 11.1%, to $21.22 billion in 2023. To put that in perspective, that prediction means auto ad sales would account for 7.2% of total digital ad spend in the U.S.

These numbers are impressive, but it’s still clear that traditional media and TV advertising reign supreme. The same report from eMarketer shows the millions of dollars major brands pay for TV ads in a single month.

Traditional media such as commercials, print, and radio have been the foundation for automotive marketing for decades. Commercials, in particular, are a popular choice for showcasing chic new models and features. Many of these TV ads create a cinematic experience hoping to entice consumers to visit their local dealership.

Introducing: The Modern Car Buyer

While TV commercials and traditional media certainly aren’t disappearing, there’s no denying that consumer behavior around car buying has evolved. The experts at IBM recently compiled research and found that 7 out of 10 consumers would rather shop digitally than go to a dealership. Other reports suggest that 76% of buyers are happy to conduct the entire purchase online.

Specifically, more and more consumers are also using their mobile devices to conduct research and shop for cars. Back in 2016, Meta (formerly Facebook) commissioned a study on the mobile-first auto consumer and found that 71% of all respondents use mobile during the purchase process. And 58% of respondents said, in the future, their smartphone would likely be the only device used for vehicle research. Considering all that has happened since then, these numbers are likely far higher today.

71

%

of automotive consumers use mobile during the purchase process

Mobile Auto Buying

Much of this recent shift is thanks to shifting consumer attitudes and the necessity of online shopping that spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. As PCMag explains, the pandemic caused a boom in car purchasing, as people moved from cities to suburbs and avoided public transportation. At the same time, dealerships were grappling with supply chain shortages and had limited inventory.

This created the perfect combination for online car buying to thrive. Especially since consumers are more comfortable than ever before making large purchases through digital channels – including on mobile.

Of course, demographics also played a role in this change. The magazine reports that, “The younger the customer, the more likely they were to make their car purchase online.” According to their survey, 77% of respondents ages 18-24 purchased their vehicle online.

As a tech-native generation continues to come of age and online shopping becomes the new norm, car companies need to be able to reach them where they are: mobile.

The Perks of Non-Traditional Car-Buying

The emergence of online-only auto retailer companies is proof that this trend is here to stay. Carvana, CarMax, and Cars.com make it easy for consumers to buy a new (or used) car from the comfort of their couch. No trip to a dealership, greasy salesperson, or long wait times necessary!

Most consumers prefer these methods because of the convenience and access to more inventory. They can easily compare different models and price points to find the exact car they want within their budget. Then easily have it delivered to their door or picked up!

Many of these companies also offer mobile apps, making it easy for consumers to browse different models and make purchasing decisions right from their smartphones. It’s no wonder Progressive reports that online car buyers are 20% more likely to report being highly satisfied with their experience than in-person buyers.

On the flip side, this level of convenience benefits car dealers because it streamlines what can be a lengthy process. It also allows them to target consumers throughout the funnel. While someone researching car models is likely at the top of the funnel, those visiting websites like Carvana are closer to making a purchase. This empowers advertisers to tailor auto ads to where consumers are in their purchasing journey.

Consumer Portal

Make the Move to Mobile Auto Ads

Mobile is the new frontier for auto ads, and there’s no better time than the present to begin making this move.

More and more consumers are relying on their mobile devices for activities outside of communication and entertainment. One of the fastest growing sectors is mobile shopping, or mcommerce. eMarketer predicts that retail mcommerce sales to account for 43.4% of total retail ecommerce sales in 2023, up from 41.8% in 2022. Over the next few years, it wouldn’t be surprising if mobile retail sales outnumber the rest.

Needless to say, consumers are turning to their mobile devices for news, research, and shopping more than ever before. It’s time for auto brands to meet them where they are.

With the right mobile creative solution, auto ads can effortlessly mimic the feel of traditional media and TV ads on a mobile screen.

Effective Auto Ads in Action

With so many cutting-edge mobile ad formats to choose from, how do you know which are most compelling for your auto ads? Here are some components of effective mobile auto ads.

Augmented Reality

One of the most obvious drawbacks of mobile car shopping is the inability to truly see and experience the vehicle...or so people once thought.

Thanks to augmented reality (AR), advertisers can add virtual elements to the existing world. It creates a unique mixed-reality experience perfect for capturing elements of the traditional car-buying experience.

This is an ideal type of unit for letting potential car shoppers see how a certain make and model would look in their driveway – and experience it with a 360 view – all from their phone.

Jeep AR Creative ImageJeep AR Creative Image

Bespoke Video Auto Ads

As we’ve talked about before, more and more people are consuming media online – specifically on mobile devices. Consumers continue to engage with video ads on their mobile phones and devices, so much so that 87% of video marketers reported to HubSpot that video delivered them a positive ROI last year.

Car brands can take the cinematic nature of TV auto ads and create hyper-engaging mobile ads with a full-screen mobile format. Bespoke video ads make it possible for brands to increase brand awareness and engagement by putting their TV commercials in the palm of their customers’ hands.

Creative Demo Frame

Bonus Ideas

Here are just a handful of other ways brands can utilize interactive elements in their auto ads:

360 Pannable

Be it the exterior, interior (or both), this creative unit helps online car shoppers experience a 360 degree tour of the vehicle at hand.

Experience our Ads

Be it the exterior, interior (or both), this creative unit helps online car shoppers experience a 360 degree tour of the vehicle at hand.

Hover and scroll over the phone to reveal a Shoppable Ad

OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen Shoppable Ad in a mobile environment.

SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Time
iPhone Frame for Creative Demo

Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
Creative Demo Frame

Wipeable

Encourages the user to interact with the creative and see what is underneath.

Interactive Bespoke Video

What differentiates an interactive bespoke video ad from the rest? Check out this award-winning video ad that allows users to choose their advertising experience based on the car features they’re interested in.

This campaign was shortlisted for the Drum Awards. The video ad showcases the mesmerizing experience of driving modes in different terrain/weather conditions by allowing users to select and play multiple videos from a dashboard that looks like the actual car monitor.

Explore more engaging mobile creatives to inspire your next auto ad.

Creative Demo Frame

If the Shoe Fits:

Everything You Need to Know to Create Successful Shoe Ads

Shoes are some of the most instantly recognizable apparel out there. From the red bottoms of Christian Louboutin heels to the iconic Nike swoosh, you don’t need to be a footwear expert to recognize these brands.

Luxury footwear brands are often masters in marketing. They know how to display their shoes, show them off and enter partnerships to create buzz around new styles, colors, and more. And the next frontier for footwear advertising is augmented reality (AR).

Try-on shoe ads powered by AR can instantly elevate your digital marketing and put your product in front of consumers no matter where they are. Let’s explore more about try-on shoe ads to see if they’re a good fit for your brand.

The Success of Virtual Try-On

Footwear brands are always looking for a way to bring a little more “sole” to their advertising efforts. And with advancements in technology, try-on shoe ads seem to be the answer to creating an engaging and unique advertising experience for consumers.

The ability to virtually try on shoes has already been extremely successful for online retailers like Amazon. Last year, TechCrunch explained how the retailer’s Virtual Try-On for Shoes allows customers to use their mobile phone’s camera to visualize how a pair of new shoes would look on them. By aiming their phone’s camera at their feet, the virtual shoes will appear and customers can see how different colors and styles look from different angles.

Virtual try-on for shoes benefits brands and consumers alike. The former is able to better showcase their products, while the latter can make a more informed purchasing decision.

And while virtual try-on is making it easier and more engaging to shop for fashion online, it’s not just limited to the shopping experience.

Experience a Try-On Ad

Click below to view this ad and experience it yourself

Scan QR Code to view this ad on your mobile to reveal the full screen experience in a mobile environment.

EXPERIENCE IT YOURSELF
SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Creative Demo Frame

The Footprint of Augmented Reality

When brands want to create innovative experiences for consumers, AR is the way to go.

Augmented reality adds virtual elements to the existing world to create a unique mixed-reality experience. Though it’s often associated with the gaming and entertainment industry, recently the ability to utilize AR in marketing has become viable for brands and advertisers.

The options for utilizing AR to make shopping easier and more delightful for consumers are endless. It’s one of the best ways to bring the shopping experience to the user at home and guide them down the marketing funnel.

Brands Stand Out With Try-On Shoe Ads

Try-on shoe ads are a great way for brands to engage with consumers and make their products more accessible to a wider audience. Let’s take a closer look at how try-on shoe ads can put your brand a foot above the rest.

Increase Awareness & Engagement

Augmented reality is the ideal full-funnel solution that can be used for everything from increasing awareness and driving engagement to getting a conversion. Try-on shoe ads, in particular, can help brands raise awareness and engagement with their campaigns.

Time and time again, AR advertisements are shown to have higher engagement rates than other, more basic ad formats. Similarly, they can do wonders at increasing brand awareness. Medium recently reported how AR ads have the potential to increase the lift of brand awareness by two percentage points. These numbers came from a study conducted by Meta that found that while the median lift for traditional Facebook ads was 1.1%, AR-supported campaigns have a median of 3.1% awareness lift.

Meta also found that campaigns that incorporated AR had a 59% lower cost for driving awareness. Clearly, utilizing AR can be a win-win for brands seeking to increase awareness while reducing costs.

Reduce Return Rates

Try-on shoe ads also help consumers feel more confident with their purchases. Luxury shoes are often an investment for consumers. They conduct a lot of research online into different brands, styles, colors and reviews before making their purchase decision.

Consumers already appreciate how AR creates experiences that make shopping more streamlined and successful. Research from NielsenIQ found that 56% of shoppers said that AR gives them more confidence about the quality of a product, and 61% said they prefer to shop with retailers that offer AR experiences.

As you can see, try-on shoe ads can also be used further down the funnel to help consumers shop with security. By the time their shoes arrive at their doorstep, there shouldn’t be any surprises that would cause them to make a return.

61

%

of online shoppers said they prefer to shop with retailers that offer AR experiences

AR Space Experience

Reach a Wider Audience

The experts at Shopify say it best, aspiration fuels the customer journey across every touchpoint. Luxury footwear brands, in particular, can use try-on shoe ads to put their products on the feet of more consumers. This instantly makes their products more accessible without having to change price points or brand image.

Are Try-On Shoe Ads a Good Fit for Your Brand?

As exciting and engaging as try-on shoe ads are, they don’t come without their challenges. Applying AR to mobile advertisements is still fairly new, and there are some important design and compatibility nuances brands need to consider.

Shoe Design Matters

Let’s cut to the chase: not all shoes are a great fit for AR-powered try-on ads. There is a major difference between how open-toed shoes like sandals or flip-flops would look on screen and closed-toed shoes like sneakers or heels. The former is inherently more difficult to design and incorporate with real-life elements, like a person’s toes.

AR Shoe Types

As technology currently stands, it’s easier to translate closed-toed shoes into a mixed-reality environment. Consumers can easily see how the product would look on their foot front many angles. However, toes pose a problem for open-toed shoes. It can be difficult (and jarring) to designate which areas a virtual shoe will cover and the parts it doesn’t.

Simply put, while try-on shoe ads for sandals or open-toed shoes are possible, they may flop.

Bringing AR to Mobile

As we mentioned earlier, many retailers like Amazon have already had success with virtual try-on technology. Similarly, apps like Snapchat have pioneered virtual-try-on features and in-app shopping for users. Who hasn’t loved trying on fun hats, luxury purses and more all from one place?

Of course, these apps have the advantage of operating in a closed environment. Consumers have to go to the Snapchat or Amazon app to utilize the virtual try-on features while a try-on advertisement is something they would come across while browsing on their mobile phone, anywhere else on the web.

Device compatibility is another challenge of utilizing AR with ads for shoes. Developers need to understand the difference in operating systems and how they can impact the consumer experience with mobile ads.

Attention to Details

Finally, it’s important to know what translates well to a mixed reality experience and what doesn’t. Virtual try-on shoe ads are ideal for providing consumers with how different colors and styles of shoes will look on their feet, but small details aren’t the focus.

If you want to showcase details on your shoes, like unique stitching or a hidden logo on the tongue, consider using other ad formats so consumers can see these features close up.

Creative Demo Frame

Brand Boot Camp

Ready to make your shoe ads stand out with AR?

Consider this your quick brand boot camp for how to make your AR shoe ads a success.

Keep it Simple:

No, we’re definitely not talking about sacrificing the quality of your designs for your shoe ads. Just because an ad is simple doesn’t mean it’s still not visually stunning. What we’re saying is that your product should be the star of your shoe ads. Don’t get too bogged down in the details and save flashy mobile ad ideas for other aspects of your campaign.

Know your Audience:

Oftentimes, consumers engaging with try-on shoe ads are further down the funnel than you think. While AR ads are great for increasing awareness and engagement, they can also be that final push that helps consumers make a purchasing decision. By knowing your target audience, you can provide them with the type of mobile ad experience they’re looking for.

Placement is Key:

Try-on shoe ads can be a part of any campaign, however, they work better when paired with contextual targeting. By placing your eye-catching try-on ads in premium and relevant environments, you’re maximizing the effectiveness of your campaign.

Try-on shoe ads are great standalone campaigns but perform best when utilized as a part of a larger campaign. For instance, if you’re running a celebrity endorsement with TV ads, try-on shoe ads are a great way for consumers to experience the product on their own feet. Additional ads can then show the details or other unique selling points of your shoes.

What does the future of ad creatives hold?

While we might not have a crystal ball, we do have a lot of insight into the types of attention-grabbing ad creatives consumers want to engage with.

Let’s take a look into the future of creative mobile ads in 2023. These creative ads are more than a flash in the pan - they’re continuously engaging consumers and outperforming benchmarks into the new year.

Augmented Reality

Icon Number One

Augmented reality is already making its mark on mobile advertising. Shopify recently compiled statistics on these creative types, reporting that 38% of marketer respondents to one survey said they are using AR in 2022. That's up 15 percentage points from 2017, a trend that’s likely to continue to skyrocket as AR technology becomes more accessible and user-friendly.

Augmented reality essentially allows customers to virtually try on and interact with products on their phones wherever they are. At its core, it brings the in-store shopping experience to a user’s own space. But it also does so much more than that.

AR ad campaigns empower consumers to get a hyper-realistic preview of products. Whether that be how different glasses frames look on their face to how a couch would look in their living room. It’s a great way to engage consumers with products and reduce buyer’s remorse and returns.

Creative Demo Frame

Artful AR Ads

See this flashy creative ad type in action. One of the most popular immersive mixed reality experiences is a model viewer. This high-quality ad gives users a 360 view of the product, and superimposing it allows consumers to experience it in their own space.

A mobile shopper can see how a different color handbag will appear on her desk or how a new TV would look in his media room. Superimposing true-to-life size virtual products into real settings allows users to see if a product matches their aesthetic.

Virtual Reality

Icon Number Two

As opposed to AR, which focuses on bringing individual products and objects to life, virtual reality creates a fully virtual space for consumers to experience. VR, as you likely know, involves VR headsets and more advanced (and expensive) technology to create a fully immersive experience. As the experts at McKinsey explain, this totally immersive experience is powered by a mix of external cameras, sensors, and more to create a seamless virtual world.

Now, we know what you're thinking. Most consumers don’t have access to this technology, so is it a viable option for advertisers and brands? The answer is a resounding yes.

At MOBKOI, our take on VR ad creatives is a little different from the industry definition. Rather than needing VR headsets and other tech, our VR ads allow consumers to interact with a virtual world from their mobile device.

Some top creatives that utilize VR include creating virtual showrooms and storefronts for consumers to engage with. These types of ad creatives allow users to explore the world created by brands from the comfort of their own homes.

Creative Demo Frame

Interactive VR Ads

Ready to experience virtual reality without the need for a bulky and expensive headset? Check out this stunning example that transports you directly to Musée Atelier.

Browse around and take a 360° tour like you would in-person in this truly immersive experience.

Gamification

Icon Number Three

2023 is all about fun and games.

The numbers don’t lie, consumers can’t get enough of advergames. These ad creatives are the perfect combination of advertising and gaming that instantly grab consumer attention…and keep it!

Gamified ads help brands:

  • Capture consumer attention for longer than any other ad format at 23.5 seconds, according to Celtra.
  • Improve engagement rates, especially among younger generations.
  • Increase brand awareness in a non-intrusive way.

We love these ad creatives because the possibilities for personalization and branding are truly endless. The MOBKOI gamification suite offers over 10 different kinds of games to choose from, perfect for lux to mass-market brands and everything in between.

Advergames can vary in complexity and can be as simple as a word search, or they can pay homage to classics like Space Invaders and whack-a-mole to trending games like Wordle. When brands create ads of this type, they can add bespoke elements and personalization that align with their voice and image. This really elevates the interactivity and keeps consumers in-unit interacting with the brand – all in an environment that is true to their brand identity too.

Creative Demo Frame

The G.O.A.T of Gamification

Creative advertising is equal parts creativity, branding, and utilizing the right technology. Without one of these parts, your mobile gaming ad is sure to fall flat.

The Strongbow campaign is an example of this trifecta in action. Experience this ad (and a break for some fun) for yourself.

Learn more about advergaming and how it can benefit your brand in 2023.

Interactive Video Ads

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According to HubSpot, people are watching more videos online than ever before. And what better way to reach them than through mobile?

Consumers continue to engage with video ads on their mobile phones and devices, so much so that 87% of video marketers reported to HubSpot that video delivered them a positive ROI last year. Brands can continue to capitalize on this trend in 2023 by utilizing interactive and unique video formats.

In other words, don’t settle for basic videos this year. At MOBKOI, our flashy video ad creatives range from full-screen auto-play videos to interactive long-form videos and video selectors. Always tailored to your branding and goals.

Our creative team specializes in bringing unique video assets to life that tell a brand’s story in the most compelling way. And we know what it takes to leverage video to achieve various KPIs. The opportunities for how to use video assets are endless, and they’re an especially solid investment for brands because of their ability to capture consumer attention.

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Award-Winning Video Ad

Not all video ads are created equal. Check out this award-winning video ad that allows users to choose their advertising experience based on the car features they’re interested in.

This campaign was shortlisted for the Drum Awards in APAC. The video ad showcases the mesmerizing experience of driving modes in different terrain/weather conditions by allowing users to select and play multiple videos from a dashboard that looks like the actual car monitor.

Bespoke Display Ads

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This year, it’s time to make the most of mobile display ads.

Size is one of the key drivers of attention and can improve ad performance across the board. Full-screen interscroller ads with bespoke elements are a proven way to ensure consumers see, and absorb, your elevated brand messaging.

The Interscroller is a type of mobile display ad that reveals the ad content as the reader scrolls down the visited web page. When the user scrolls to reveal 85% of the placement, it can snap to take over the entire screen. The user can opt out of the screen simply by scrolling to dismiss the ad – making for a non-disruptive, polite experience.

Full-screen ads that are unmissable naturally have a strong CTR, and when combined with bespoke elements like special effects or animation, brand impact significantly improves. These effective ads are all about creating a complementary creative mobile ad that’s immersive (even if it’s not interactive) and branded.

Another way to utilize display ads this year is to take the less is more approach. With various layouts to choose from, brands can tailor unique and bespoke elements to fit each campaign. By choosing different layouts that are lighter in weight, they are loaded faster to enhance the user experience on mobile.

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Beautiful Bespoke Display Ad

Display ads might be a dime a dozen, but 100% full-screen display ads with bespoke elements are truly eye-catching.

Explore this stunning and polite advertising experience for yourself below.

Shoppable Ads

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Online shopping has been around for decades, making it more convenient for shoppers to purchase everything they need from the comfort of their home. But now, more users than ever before are using their mobile devices to make these purchases.

According to Shopify, mobile commerce volume is expected to hit $620.97 billion by 2024. To put that in perspective, that means nearly half (42.9%) of all e-commerce purchases will be made via a mobile device.

Consumers, especially the younger generations, are extremely comfortable doing their online shopping on mobile. With a few taps of the screen, they can have everything from their weekly groceries to a new outfit delivered to their door.

Shoppable ads streamline this process even more. Consumers can add items to their cart or make a purchase directly from an ad. These ad creatives are incredibly well-rounded and can provide brands with plenty of insight into performance without having to ask the user to do much.

When consumers interact with the ad, it can take them directly to the e-commerce landing page to create a seamless user experience. At the same time, brands can track and optimize which products are clicked on the most to perfect their mobile marketing strategy and drive ROI.

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Shoppable Creative that Shines

Mobile shopping has become so commonplace that even diamonds are purchased by phone! Take a look at this gem of a shoppable ad unit that displays fine jewellery options via a carousel, along with a store locator and a clear ‘Shop Now’ CTA for users to make a purchase (if they so choose).

Watch the webinar to learn more about this brilliant campaign and shoppable ad unit that achieved a 0.67% engagement rate - 2.2x the mobile display benchmark!

Real-Time Reactions

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The last emerging trend for ad creatives in 2023 is Real-Time Reactions. This unique ad format is ideal for brands wanting to reach younger audiences, since it mimics the interactions that happen on popular social media platforms.

Let’s pull back the curtain a bit on this ad creative.

Real-Time Reactions can be added to full-screen display units, galleries, or video units, making it a versatile investment. It allows users to react to the ad by tapping on a selection of emojis in real time.

These creative ads are also highly customizable. The emojis can be changed to fit your brand, and advertisers can also choose whether they want to show users the total number of reactions in each emoji and whether to display others’ reactions in real time.

Creative Demo Frame

React to this Real-Time Ad

Let your opinion be heard.

As you can see from this example of a Real-Time Reaction ad, this ad can be used for more than sharing reactions. It can be a way to create a community or shared experience among consumers or a creative take on a traditional poll.

Today’s consumers crave meaningful brand connections that aren’t all that different from their relationships with people.

When you want to connect consumers with your brand and elevate your image, creating a memorable and immersive brand experience is a must. Of course, this is easier said than done.

Read on to learn all about what goes into creating a brilliant immersive mobile experience and how it can benefit your next campaign.

Defining an Immersive Brand Experience

Your brand is more than a business. With advertising, there’s an opportunity to build trust and a deep attachment that can translate to improved brand advocacy, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. One way to do this is through meaningful brand experience design.

Immersive brand experiences invite consumers to fully interact with branded content like videos, games, and other visuals and sounds. The approach empowers brands to create a world of their own for consumers to connect with. As you’ll see, these experiences can range from the whimsical to the more practical, but they all rely on the pairing of cutting-edge creative and technology to bring the branded experience to life.

Immersive Brand Strategy in Action

The rise of immersive brand experiences is already here.

Just take the rise of social commerce. As the experts at McKinsey highlight, more and more consumers are turning to social platforms to interact with brands. It’s evidence of a paradigm shift in where, when, and how consumers are shopping. And for the brands in question, it provides ample opportunities to offer more interactive, experiential journeys to meet consumers where they are - on mobile.

The same is true for the continued popularity of immersive commercial experiences. Remember the “Immersive Van Gogh'' experience that made its way across the country? The experience transported people into the artist’s most famous works of art and became an instant hit. Between February 2021 and May 2022, the immersive experience sold more than 5 million tickets and it was nearly impossible to miss seeing it shared on social media.

To say the Van Gogh experience is a success would be an understatement. Other brands and artists are also taking notice. The Gorillaz, a popular band, made history with their augmented reality (AR) concert in both New York City and London. And Disney even released its first AR-enabled short film this past fall.

Brands can capitalize on the popularity of immersive experiences by incorporating them into their marketing and advertising strategy. Mobile ads, in particular, are the perfect complement to in-person experiences and events. And with the right technology at their fingertips, brands can put mini-immersive experiences directly in the hands of their consumers.

How Do Immersive Mobile Experiences Benefit Brands

Immersive brand experiences are more than flashy gimmicks. Investing in immersive mobile experiences can help your brand:

Engage Consumers

Attention and engagement are the most important metrics to measure in 2023 and beyond. And what better way to engage consumers with your mobile ads than by making them interactive?

At the foundation of immersive brand experiences is interactivity. For instance, the Van Gogh immersive experience invites guests to be a part of the artist’s work. They can walk around, take pictures, or sit back and relax in some of the rooms. This creates an interactive, memorable experience for visitors.

Creating these moments on mobile is ideal for capturing consumer attention. In fact, we recently analyzed our clients’ ads and found that video ads with interactive capabilities achieve a 53% boost in engagement compared to standard video ads. Interactive features keep consumers engaged with your mobile creative and create a unique 1:1 ad experience.

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of interactive video ads acheive a 53% boost in engagement compared to standard video ads.

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Improve Brand Recall

Immersive mobile experiences can also make your brand more relatable. Marketers can create worlds that are aligned with their brand identity and deliver them to the hands and minds of consumers. This can go a long way in terms of improving brand awareness and recall.

We recently worked with Lumen, a top Attention Measurement firm that utilizes eye-tracking and surveying of opted-in panel participants, to evaluate the brand recall of MOBKOI formats compared to industry benchmarks. After analyzing two distinct brands, Lumen found that with MOBKOI mobile ads, one campaign achieved 2.7x better spontaneous recall when compared to traditional mobile display ads. The other brand’s campaign performed even better, with 3.5x the average spontaneous recall.

Brand recall is one of the best ways to verify that your mobile ads are indeed capturing attention and resonating with consumers. Findings from this initial study suggest that interactive, full-screen mobile ad formats are incredibly effective for brands across industries to make impactful, long-lasting impressions.

Learn more about the results from the Lumen and MOBKOI research study.

Showcase Product Features

There’s a fine balance between creating an immersive brand experience that’s both memorable and branded.

Luckily, mobile experiences are a great opportunity to include bespoke elements and highlight what makes your products and services shine. For example, a luxury retail brand releasing a line of handbags can showcase a limited-edition color through an immersive, colorful mobile ad. An automotive brand can highlight the features of a newly released car by giving consumers a 360-degree view of the exterior and interior – all through an interactive ad unit.

Immersive brand experiences are memorable and marketable. After engaging with an interactive mobile ad, consumers should be able to more easily recognize or recall your brand along with details of the experience you just delivered.

Experience our Ads

Hover and scroll over the phone to reveal an Interscroller Ad

OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen Interscroller Ad in a mobile environment.

SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Time
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Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
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3 Ways to Bring Your Brand to Life

Many people think of “immersive marketing” in the context of in-person events. When done right, mobile is a perfect complement to an immersive in-person experience or an omnichannel campaign.

We recently had the chance to catch up with the VP of Marketing at The Watches of Switzerland Group, Katie Reed, who heads up marketing strategy for the company’s family of brands. During the webinar, she highlighted how her team utilized immersive mobile ads as part of their 2022 Mayors Diamonds Collection campaign.

Along with a lavish event in the Hamptons and pop-up stores where consumers could try on jewellery, her team also ran interactive mobile ads powered by MOBKOI. The top-performing creative was a drag-and-drop unit that showcased how different jewellery pieces looked on a Mayors Bridal model.

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This brilliant creative captured consumer attention by letting users drive the experience. Interactive features enhanced the ad experience, keeping users engaged within the unit longer than other formats as they mixed and matched jewelry on the model.

The drag-and-drop creative achieved a whopping engagement rate of 7.06%. That’s almost 24x the mobile display benchmark. Additionally, it achieved viewability, click-through, and dwell-time rates that were significantly higher than industry benchmarks.

Moreover, the mobile ads were the perfect complement to the in-person event and pop-up stores – creating an all-around immersive brand experience.

CTR: 0.31% - 3.1x above bench
VIEWABILITY: 75% - 1.3x above bench
DWELL TIME: 17s - 5.7x above bench
ENGAGEMENT: 7.06% - 23.5 above bench

Augmented Reality

In a blog about immersive experiences, we’d be remiss not to highlight an Augmented Reality example. While the applications of AR in advertising are endless, one especially interesting use case is how AR can amplify PR stunts.

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Take this unmissable example from Burberry. In 2021, the luxury brand set a giant Burberry bag to sail on the Thames to mark a new global campaign. The up-scaled model of Burberry’s sculptural Olympia bag was to promote its release.

The unmissable, floating handbag garnered immediate attention. After taking on the Thames, it continued on its journey to other destinations. This stunt was no doubt eye-catching, and it was further complemented by AR mobile ads that empowered users to see how the bag would look in their own space in real time.

While the enormous Olympia bag caught consumer attention and was great for showcasing the details of the bag, AR allowed consumers to see how the actual bag (to scale) would look in their space. Consumers could interact with the bag and see how it could look sitting on their desks or on their countertops. It’s a creative and engaging way to ensure the bag matches a personal aesthetic before making a purchase.

AdTalk

We’ve talked at length about bringing brands to life visually, but what about the voice of a brand?

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2022 study by Userlike, 80% of consumers have at some point interacted with a chatbot. The study also found that consumers find chatbots to be fast, convenient and sufficient for basic requests. Very few respondents were against companies using chatbots, and with generative AI making waves, the technology will only become more advanced and prevalent.

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of consumers have at some point interacted with a chatbot

An AdTalk ad is essentially a chatbot in an ad unit. Advertisers can leverage AdTalk units to guide mobile shoppers to find the right product or service to meet their needs. These ads connect with consumers on a more personal level, making them ideal for fun holiday campaigns or lighthearted gift guides.

While this type of unit is highly customizable, there are a few rules of thumb that any advertiser should keep in mind when testing out talking ads.

3 Ways to Bring Your Brand to Life

Avoid TL:DR Questions

AdTalk units with longer questions generally have lower tap-through rates. Simple 4 or 5 word “what” questions perform best. This tip applies mostly to the first question, which should be short to entice the user to keep going through the unit. In sum, keep it simple and not too wordy.

Make it Personal

Tap rates are significantly higher when users are directly called upon to give their opinion or describe someone they know. However, these questions need to be asked in a way that is easy to digest and respond to. For example, a question about a user’s favorite color would likely outperform a question about a top challenge at work.

No Surprises!

If you plan on asking users quiz-style questions, then make sure they know what they are getting into. One unit in the study began as an AdTalk and then went into a quiz. This unit saw a tap rate of 24% on question 2 compared to an average of 68% across all other creatives in the study. This isn’t to say that a quiz is a bad idea. Instead, the experience should simply allow users to decide upfront if they want to partake in the quiz or not.

From simple quizzes to ChatGPT-style interactions, the possibilities for AdTalk ads range far and wide. We are excited to see how this type of ad unit will evolve to become even more immersive over the next few years.

Chances are you’ve heard about augmented reality (AR) before. The ability to create immersive mixed-reality experiences has been around for decades, though usually in the context of gaming.

But what about utilizing AR for advertising?

Today, advertisers can harness the power of augmented reality to create unique mobile ad experiences for customers. And, in turn, increase engagement and loyalty to their brand.

Of course, utilizing AR advertising is easier said than done. Read on to learn more about the connection between AR and advertising, along with some actionable ad examples that can inspire your team.

An Intro To Augmented Reality Ads

Augmented reality is technology used to create immersive experiences.

Investopedia provides a more detailed definition of AR, describing it as, “An enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli and delivered via technology.”

Essentially, augmented reality adds virtual elements to the existing world. It creates a unique mixed-reality experience.

The ability to combine the real with the virtual is something the gaming and entertainment industry have been doing for decades. Only recently has the ability to utilize AR in marketing become viable for brands and advertisers.

Augmented Reality in Marketing

Everyone has a mobile phone or device today. And with mobile usage soaring, it’s never been easier to shop from wherever you are.

In a few taps on your screen, you can purchase anything from this week’s groceries to a new outfit. Online shopping has always been convenient, but now more than half of all internet traffic shopping comes from mobile devices, according to OuterBox.

Along with more and more consumers accessing the web from their smartphones, their intention is also changing. Many consumers are picking up their phones with the intent to shop. Just consider this - 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their mobile device in the last 6 months.

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of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their mobile device in the last 6 months

Image of man buying something on a mobile phone

With the growth of mobile commerce also comes an increased focus on how to bring the shopping experience to the user at home. The AR format can do exactly that. As you’ll soon see for yourself, brands can create augmented reality experiences to promote their products and services and engage consumers in a novel way.

Augmented Reality vs Virtual Reality

Along with augmented reality, there’s also virtual reality (VR). Many people use VR and AR interchangeably, but there are some important differences that affect both the user experience and your marketing campaign.Here are some of the main differences between virtual and augmented reality according to the experts at Tulane University:

  • Augmented reality uses a real-world setting but VR is completely virtual (meaning you often need more technology like a VR headset to utilize it)
  • AR advertising consumers can control their presence in the real world, while VR controls their presence
  • AR ads can be accessed with a smartphone, VR normally requires a headset device
  • Augmented reality is a mixed reality experience, VR is entirely virtual

While AR and VR advertising both exist, for now, the former is a more popular option among advertisers. Its accessibility among consumers and mixing of real and virtual elements make AR advertising campaigns a must for mobile.

How Can Your Marketing Campaign Benefit From AR Advertising

Still not convinced an AR advertising platform is right for your brand?

Don’t just take our word for it. eMarketer predicts mobile AR to be a top trend for the new year as advertisers target consumers on the go. An investment in mobile AR is a great way to future-proof your brand.

Here are a handful of the other ways augmented reality can benefit your next ad campaign in 2023.

Enhance The Online Shopping Experience

One of the biggest challenges with online shopping is not being able to interact with a product. Pictures and videos might be great for capturing consumer attention, but they don’t substitute seeing a product in real life.

AR advertising is the solution to this issue. The ability for consumers to interact with products through mixed-reality experiences can help them feel more confident in their purchase and more connected to your brand.

In recent years, NielsonIQ found that 56% of shoppers said that AR gives them more confidence about the quality of a product, and 61% said they prefer to shop with retailers that offer AR experiences.

Needless to say, AR can enhance the customer experience with your brand and even lead to more sales.

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of consumers prefer to shop with retailers that offer AR experiences

Immersive mobile of AR View

Capture Consumer Attention

Time and time again, AR advertising proves to capture consumer attention early in the purchase journey.

After comparing multiple studies, AdWeek reported that, “consumers who use AR engage with the ad format for far longer and have deeper and more immersive experiences.” Looking at the numbers, they found 80% of users engaged with ads that utilized AR for at least two seconds. On the other hand, less than 10% of individuals studied engaged with other ad formats for more than two seconds.

Brand recall was also 1.3x higher for consumers who were exposed to AR advertisements compared to other formats.

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“Consumers who use AR engage with the ad format for far longer and have deeper and more immersive experiences.”

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AdWeek

Considering the consumer’s short attention span, this is great news for advertisers wanting to break through the noise.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the AR experience is one users must opt into. Consumers who engage with AR ads aren’t simply viewing them, but actively engaging with them. You will always know you’re getting qualified views on it.

Customize the Experience

AR advertising doesn’t restrict your marketing strategy. When it comes to creating virtual assets, you can add branded and bespoke elements to resonate with your consumers.

Many of the AR advertising examples you’ll see include elements like hotspots to reveal more information, color selectors, and even a slider to preview two variations of the same product (i.e. two different colors of a handbag).

AR empowers brands to create the closest thing to an in-person shopping experience for consumers. From 360 views to virtual try-ons and comparisons, AR advertising can elevate your marketing campaigns to new heights.

3 Ways to Amaze With AR Advertising

Now for what you’ve been waiting for - AR advertising in action.

These three AR advertising examples are just a sampling of how brands can use AR mobile ads. As you’ll see, while all of them utilize AR technology, they do so in different ways.

Creative Demo Frame

Model Viewer

No one wants buyers' remorse. Not only does it leave customers unhappy, but it can also have them reevaluating their feelings toward your brand.

Recent research found that 74% of U.S. adults have experienced buyer's remorse after buying items online. Their most common reason for this feeling was the perception that the purchased item was less valuable than expected.

It can be difficult for consumers to understand the quality of a product when shopping online. Pictures and videos only do so much, while AR goes the extra step to help recreate an in-store shopping experience.

A model viewer advertisement, while not a true immersive AR experience, leverages AR assets and technology to allow consumers to interact with products from their mobile device. They experience the product in 3D with a 360 view to better understand how a product looks from any angle.

Retailers can especially benefit from this entry-level AR advertising. From shoes and clothing to furniture and cars, the model view allows consumers to interact with your product before making a purchase.

Superimpose

One step above the model viewer is the ability to superimpose products into the consumer’s own setting. While the model viewer gives users a 360 view of the product, superimposing it allows consumers to experience it in their own space.

This is ideal for the consumer who wants to see how different color handbags will appear on her desk or how a couch or table will look in her living room. By superimposing true-to-life size virtual products into real settings, users can get a better idea if a product matches their aesthetic.

This type of AR advertising is already popular among consumers. Recent research by Retail Perceptions found that 77% of AR users said they use this format to see product differences, such as different colors and styles. More so than other formats, AR allows them to do this up close, at different angles, and in their own space.

Experience it in Action

Scroll over the phone to interact with a 360 Model Viewer.

OR view this page on your mobile to reveal the full screen experience in a mobile environment.

SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW THIS EXPERIENCE FULL SCREEN ON MOBILE
Time
iPhone Frame for Creative Demo

Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

Scroll for Experience

Scroll down to view an Interscroller Ad
and experience it yourself

CREATIVE DEMO AD
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

Creative Demo Frame

Virtual Try On

Finally, we can’t forget about how AR enables brands to offer virtual try-ons. This is perhaps the most complex type of AR advertising to pull off, but can also be the most beneficial for retail brands.

Virtual try-on is a fun experience for consumers - it allows them to see a product on their own body (using their phone’s front-facing camera). This is ideal for products like glasses, hats, jewelry, and even makeup.

This type of mobile AR helps users see if they’ll like a product on them, not just in their space. Because there’s nothing more frustrating than purchasing a product that looks great on display but lackluster on yourself.

Virtual try-ons help consumers be confident in their purchase, and they can also help brands solve issues like returns. Bloomberg recently reported on one study that found consumers who used AR to try products virtually were less likely to send purchases back. This can save consumers the frustration of making a return while also helping a brand’s bottom line.

Quote Marks Symbol

“Consumers who use AR to try products virtually are less likely to send purchases back.”

Bloomberg brand icon
Bloomberg

Preparing Your Business for the Future of Mobile Advertising

It’s never too early - or too late - to begin future-proofing your mobile advertising efforts. To appeal to mobile users today and tomorrow, it’s essential to tap into the mobile consumer and contextual advertising expertise.‍Most mobile web advertising efforts fall flat because they fail to take a holistic approach to mobile ads. By focusing on just content, ad placement, or engagement, you’re not creating a premium mobile ad experience that consumers want to interact with.

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