The return of rich media in a programmatic world
We know there are some potential threats to the digital advertising industry, from the financially punitive ad-fraud schemes to concerns around media transparency and ad-blocking.
To make matters worse, the digital advertising world is complex. New players are constantly entering the market, making it difficult for marketers to know where they should invest their budgets to get the business outcomes they’re looking for.
However, marketers’ objectives haven’t changed much over the years. They still want to know how to get the best return from their digital investments, how to get consumers interested in their products and services, and how to make their brand stand out from the competition in a noisy online world.
So how can brands win? The answer is relevance. By making digital campaigns more creative, interactive and personalised across all devices and touchpoints, consumers get a much richer and engaging brand experience. We have to move beyond static display advertising!
Impactful rich media ad formats work brilliantly for advertisers when served and placed in the right environment and context. The outcome is increased engagement, higher interaction rates, better brand recall, and more purchase intent.
Our research has borne this out. At the end of last year, we analysed 21 unique formats, more than 2,500 unique ad unit size combinations, over 1.3 million individual ads, and hundreds of billions of impressions served via the Sizmek platform during the first half of 2016.
The Sizmek Rich Media and Video Benchmarks report found that, globally, rich media ad units lifted engagement 7.44 times more than standard banners. Pushdowns deliver 174 per cent more lift than polite banners and we found that retail and tech advertisers get the most engagement from rich media ads with an engagement lift of 44.92 times.
In this new programmatic world, we’re finally starting to see the rise of dynamic creative optimisation, which is being adopted at an astonishing rate around the globe. Dynamic creative, where data meets creative so that advertisers can deliver personalised and relevant advertising to their target audiences, is already recognised as a necessity for any multi-channel campaign.
The optimisation part enables advertisers to serve the best-performing ad based on individual elements that resonate best for each independent target audience. It will play a major role in programmatic creative strategies.
Brands are already pushing the limits of creativity. Take Sony PlayStation’s game, the Last Guardian, which invited the viewer to take part in the game, view a trailer and buy the game. They used HTML5 single expandable workspace technology, which created a layering effect of the characters over the video, and added a sense of depth to the ad.
Meantime, vodka brand Stoli deployed dynamic creative technology to test out different stories and their impact on various audiences. The team then auto-optimised the ads to make sure the best performing message always got served.
Or take a look at French clothing retailer, Sergent Major, which shot a video, encased it in a branded canvas, and added a subtle product carousel, and product call-to-actions. Or consider how Nissan, Sears, and Volkswagen deployed video storybooks, flip formats and other cool creative elements to heighten the impact of their digital advertising.
We are also starting to see a proliferation of dynamic creative emerge across different channels–from in-stream video, to out-stream, to native executions. With the increased focus on creative within programmatic channels, I expect to see a higher volume of high-impact media campaigns. In other words, ads will become more engaging, interactive and more akin to content.
Furthermore, once reserved for direct placements or publisher sponsorships, interactive video ads and rich media will move farther into the programmatic arena, some through private marketplaces, and others through the open exchange.
If you start to deliver premium, rich content, your customers will engage.
Brands need to start asking about the creative element in programmatic campaigns and use all the data they’ve collected about their audiences to put the right creative in front of the right consumer.
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