Archive for October, 2010

Ad sequencing in the non-linear Web world

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Photo of John Steinbeck quote

Use ad sequencing to tell stories*

Consumers typically progress through a single TV program or a series of episodes in a linear fashion. Advertisers have taken advantage of this linear progression to build brand awareness and tell stories through ad sequences.

For example, Budweiser served a progression of popular beer ads to football fans watching the Superbowl. Taster’s Choice promoted its coffee using an ad sequence that traced the progress of a developing romance. The Energizer Bunny sequence not only won a best-commercial-of-the-year Obie award but also resulted in Energizer pulling ahead of Duracell in sales.

Because ad sequencing works on television, advertisers who extend their campaigns online want to tap into that same sense of motion and momentum. But, they face a challenge. How is it possible to capture the repetition and story-telling potential of ad sequencing on the Web, an inherently non-linear medium?

As part of its goal to remove barriers to online video advertising, Mixpo recently released its Dynamic Suite. Included in the Suite is a message sequencing tool that provides advertisers with one of the easiest, most effective ways to deliver in-banner video ad sequences on the Web.

Ad sequencing described

With Mixpo’s user-friendly ad sequencing tool, advertisers can:

  • Build in a progressive viewing experience by basing ads that a consumer sees on ads that same consumer viewed or encountered previously (through an impression).
  • Fine tune that experience by controlling the number of impressions or views that trigger the delivery of a different ad.
  • Set up as many ad sequences as necessary to deliver the optimal brand awareness or story-telling experience.
  • Preview the ad sequencing experience to make sure it performs as expected before the ads go live.

Ad sequencing applied

Automotive: From the general to the specific

An auto dealer runs a sequence of ads based on views. Consumers who have actively chosen to view a general video ad about the new hybrid SUV will automatically be shown a more detailed ad about some of the model’s hottest features.

Retail: Upping the incentive

A sporting goods retailer runs a sequence of ads based on impressions. Consumers who have been exposed twice to a startframe that shows a re-designed elliptical machine will see a new startframe on their third visit that offers a 10% discount coupon to first-time customers.

More Information

New to Mixpo? Explore our website today to learn more about dynamic video advertising.

Mixpo customer? Learn more now about ad sequencing by signing in to your account, opening the Client Resources home page, and then searching for “sequencing.”

*Photo taken by Jill Clardy.

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Dayparting works – on TV and online

Thursday, October 14th, 2010
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Target audiences through dayparting*

Advertisers want to extend their TV campaigns online, but often fear the expense and labor involved in creating or editing video for online audiences.

To remove barriers to the TV-online transition, Mixpo not only makes it easy to re-purpose existing TV creative for use on the Web. Our platform also incorporates tried-and-true TV programming strategies, such as dayparting, into our dynamic feature suite.

Dayparting enables advertisers to deliver content at a specific time of day or day of the week, when it is most likely to be relevant to particular viewers.

Dayparting described

Advertisers accustomed to running dayparted campaigns on television will find it easy to take advantage of this feature on Mixpo’s platform. Using an intuitive interface, dayparting is simple to implement and supports:

  • Running different ads during select dayparts, with no limit on the number of dayparts.
  • Setting up customized dayparting schedules for different days of the week.
  • Copying schedules from one day to another.
  • Previewing dayparts to ensure functionality before the ads go live.
  • Trafficking one master ad tag that controls an entire dayparting schedule.
  • Generating custom reports that track the individual performance of each dayparted ad.
  • Changing creative or adjusting daypart times mid-campaign without re-trafficking any ad tags.

Dayparting applied

Here are a few examples of how dayparting can help your ad campaign:

Fast food: The right message at the right time of day

To bring customers into the store, a restaurant can run its breakfast burrito ad from midnight to 10am, its tuna melt ad from 10 am to 2:30 pm, and its four-piece chicken dinner ad from 2:30 pm to midnight.

Tune-in: The right message on the right day of the week

To queue up viewer interest and drive viewers to its nightly broadcast, a TV station can run ads a few hours in advance of air time that preview the most exciting news segment.

More Information

New to Mixpo? Explore our website today to learn more about dynamic video advertising.

Mixpo customer? Learn more now about dayparting by signing in to your account, opening the Client Resources home page, and then searching for “dayparting.”

*Image taken by David Sky

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Space invaders

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

At this year’s Advertising Week, there were a lot of great discussions, but what caught my ear repeatedly was the rediscovery of display advertising space. For years, the primary issues around display have been targeting, context, and analytics. The actual advertising space on the page was treated like an unused spare bedroom and creative afterthought—unless you like dancing silhouettes and teeth whitening ads. Even rich media, with its compelling opportunities for design and engagement, still plays a small role here—less than 6% of all impressions.

Now, creatives are ready to reclaim this forgotten geography. On more than one occasion, I heard creative agencies talk about the space available within online display advertising as a new place to assert the growing role of online creativity. One even went so far as to welcome new parties to the discussion by stating: “Technology has a seat at the creative table.”

Did you hear that? Tuck your napkins into your concert tees, my fellow technologists, it sounds like we’ve just been invited to the table! And, it’s about time! Billions of display ad impressions are consumed every day and, unfortunately, most of them are still wasted experiences. Now is the time to capitalize on those exposures by incorporating video, social interactions, real-time content, and a wide variety of interactions.

It’s time for online technologies and technologists to directly engage with the creatives. They are asking us to join the conversation. Now we need to apply our technologies to core messaging strategies. In doing so, we can co-create highly compelling advertising experiences, re-infuse display media with more value, and achieve the goals of true cross-channel creative integration.

For me, Advertising Week confirmed that now is the time to reinvigorate the display space and turn it into the dynamic experience it always should have been.

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Posted in Agencies, Anupam Gupta, Publishers, TV and Xspots | No Comments »