Tag: video ad

Yahoo Brings Full Bleed Autoplay Video Ads To Search

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
In a bid for more digital ad dollars, Yahoo has started testing full-width, autoplaying video ads to its search pages. When users search for certain keywords that brands have bought Yahoo’s search ads for, Yahoo will place the brand’s video ads atop the search results. Fashion retailer Lands’ End is an early tester, and their video stretches the entire width of the webpage and plays automatically on mute. The test is limited to desktop only for now, and it remains unclear if or when Yahoo plans to officially roll out the ad product.

What Brands Need To Do
This is not the first time a search engine attempted to make a play at brands’ video ad dollars. In August, Google was also reported to be testing video ads on its search results pages. Video ads are popular among brand advertisers, and Yahoo’s new experiment may lead to an effective new ad experience that combines the expressiveness of video ads with the targeting capability of search ads. Brands, especially those with strong branded video content, should keep a close eye on this new ad unit’s development.

Source: AdAge

Pandora Now Lets Brands Sponsor Hour-Long Listening

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Pandora has officially rolled out to all advertisers its “Sponsored Listening,” which it first started testing last fall. The new ad format prompts listeners to watch a branded video or click on a rich media ad in exchange for one hour of ad-free listening. Compared to more “native” audio ads, this ad unit seems disruptive to the user experience. Pandora claims that in pilot testing, those ads boosted purchase intent by 30% and brand awareness by 12%.

What Brands Should Do
If your brand is looking to reach the younger, streaming-heavy demographics, it may be worth your while to consider the kind of value exchange that “Sponsored Listening” presents: disrupt the audience to catch their full attention with the promise of a disruption-free experience later on. The lesson for brands here is that, if you want to cut through the clutter and engage with your audience, then you have to offer them some incentives to capture their attention first.

 

Source: AdWeek

Header image taken from Pandora Advertising

Blurred Lines: Creating Content That Works

Posted on by Lab Team

Click to download YouTube Insights here.

Finding the best way to communicate with your target consumer is one part art and one part science. As an emphasis on cross-screen viewing and digital has become a core part of brand communications, the lines between ads and content have blurred. Google and IPG Media Lab partnered to understand consumer perceptions and effectiveness of branded content and video advertising.

To learn more, download and view the YouTube Insights here.