Download the Rich Media Mobile Advertising White Paper, Mobile Advertising Grows Up, Scales Up from Adfonic, Celtra, Fetch Media and On Device Research.
Smartphone and tablet users have come to expect rich information and entertainment to jump off their screens. So the question for advertisers is why try to engage consumers that are looking for the deeply engaging, rich capabilities of their most favorite devices with static ads?
Rich media mobile advertising has enabled new creative possibilities that engage consumers in unprecedented and meaningful ways. By incorporating rich features like video content, photo galleries, social media and games directly into their ad units, advertisers give users many more options for response.
This kind of rich media mobile advertising is attracting bigger budgets from mainstream brands, who are being attracted to the mobile channel by the promise of running the richer, more engaging campaigns that they are used to running online and on TV. They are also investing as rich media offers increasingly sophisticated metrics to measure customer interaction with a brand.
Mobile Advertising Grows Up, Scales Up explains the world of rich media mobile advertising and how it has evolved over time. It also looks at the added impact and effectiveness of rich media ads and includes examples of successful campaigns. It is an essential guide for any brand or agency looking to tap the potential of rich media mobile advertising.
We are excited to share that Celtra has been selected as a Finalist in the Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year – Up to 100 Employees category in The 2012 American Business Awards, the nation’s premier business awards program.
More than 3,000 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories. Finalists were chosen by more than 140 business professionals nationwide during preliminary judging in April and May. 150 plus members of 10 specialized judging committees will determine Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists during final judging, to take place May 14 – 25.
Said Miha Mikek, CEO and co-founder of Celtra “This recognition is validation of our unique self-service AdCreator platform, which lets advertisers easily create, distribute and measure rich media mobile display advertising – offering unmatched control for creative campaign execution, cutting-edge ad formats and unified metrics to track and optimize campaigns,” said Mihael Mikek, co-founder and CEO, Celtra. “Getting people to pay attention to ads on the phone – against all odds, and everything else competing for your attention when you’re out and about – is one of the toughest tasks to take on as a technology company. Celtra has not only met that challenge but raised it to an art form.”
To learn more about Celtra’s ad formats and technology, contact us. To learn more about The American Business Awards, click here.
Celtra’s European General Manager, Jonathan Milne, will be hosting three rich media sessions and moderating a rich media panel at the IAB UK Mobile Engage conference next week in London on Thursday May 17, 2012. We hope you can join us and here’ s a sneak preview of some of the themes he’ll address during the event.
Why Mobile Advertising’s Got to Be Rich
We all know that mobile’s growth means we have to take it seriously. It’s what we do when we reach that audience that matters.
The slick mobile applications that publishers are launching are setting a high bar in consumers’ minds around quality and interactivity. Brands that deliver flat, uninspiring and non-interactive advertising to an otherwise compelling context will be casting themselves in a poor light.
Delivering compelling and complementary advertising to smartphones and tablets is absolutely vital.
It’s going to make you feel good about your advertising too; mobile rich media will let you express your brand’s promise and values as articulately as you’ve ever done before.
Compelling creative
Mobile rich media is all about HTML5. It’s the Flash of the mobile world and, although a younger technology, HTML5 is flexible, powerful and ready for prime time.
You have the ability to engage a user via the most personal channel and you need to make it count. The ability to touch, shake and tilt the device adds a new dimension of interaction that users love. Including photo galleries, video content and animation into creative executions builds user awareness and engagement.
Social media sharing extends the connection between the brand and the consumer beyond the life of the campaign. Gaming encourages users to spend quality time with the brand; playing users are focused and engaged.
Cool, fun and effective
Optimizing the effectiveness of your creative and your media spend is not just possible, it’s necessary. Every tap, swipe, view, shake and share can be measured to provide a comprehensive picture of performance and engagement. You can use that learning to optimize creative and media in mid-flight to get more from your investments.
And you’ll learn that it’s engaging and compelling for users. With online rich media engagement rates at around 2.5%, we see mobile rich media deliver an average 22% engagement rate.
Mobile rich media has arrived
The touchscreen interface on today’s smartphones and tablets provides the closest interaction a consumer can have with a brand. A user can actually touch your brand. Now that is engagement. Don’t waste the opportunity.
Jonathan Milne, General Manager Europe, Celtra
Celtra CEO Mihael Mikek speaks with new Celtra Advisory Board member Mike Kelly, about the evolving mobile advertising landscape, Kelly’s vision for the industry and his decision to join the Celtra Advisory Board. Kelly is the former CEO of The Weather Channel and former president of AOL Media Networks. He also served on the board of several fast growing digital media companies – MediaMind (formerly Eyeblaster) and Visible World. He currently serves on the board of Americantowns and ColSpace and on the Executive Committee of the American Advertising Federation (AAF).
1) Where do you see the future of mobile in the next five years?
Obviously, we’re seeing an unprecedented explosion of connected smart devices. The leap in functionality from even a high-end “feature” phone to a smartphone is extraordinary and market penetration has reached critical mass. Mobile is not a stand-alone technology but constantly connects you to everything else in your life, television, video, friends, music, local services, etc. Now we will see even more innovation on applications and platforms that take advantage of this powerful change. The fun has just begun.
2) What advice would you give to agencies and publishers to optimize their mobile advertising strategy?
The advice to advertisers and publishers is similar: it’s important to recognize they can design consumer strategy starting with the powerful attributes and convenience of smart phones and tablets. Don’t think of mobile as a separate channel or platform the way the web was viewed at its inception—mobile connects all of your consumer activity in real time. Thanks in no small part to companies like Celtra, it’s getting easier and easier to create compelling marketing and advertising on mobile with very strong ROI.
3) What prompted you to join the Celtra Board of Advisors?
Whenever there is a new large-scale consumer media technology, a new advertising ecosystem grows up around it. It usually is a period of terrific innovation and creativity. A core piece of that ecosystem is the invention of the tools necessary to allow agencies and marketers to bring their creative and analytical genius to the medium. The faster that happens, the better. Celtra has emerged as one of the innovative leaders in this new ecosystem and I am excited to do what I can to accelerate its growth.
4) What are your thoughts on how rich media will play out in mobile?
Rich media has always helped supercharge new consumer media technology, whether it was the advent of standard 30-second commercials to the kind of wonderful web-based applications advertisers employ now. In each case, the creative process pushed the boundaries of the medium’s capabilities. Mobile starts with such an amazing set of built-in capabilities that agencies and marketers are having a field day thinking up new ways to engage the consumer. This will accelerate and influence all digital and even interactive television advertising.
5) Improving ROI for mobile ad campaigns is a top priority for marketers. What options are there for them to increase performance?
The great thing about digital advertising is it is very measurable. We have gotten used to measurement and ROI being the price of entry of new media platforms. Mobile measurement is getting easier and more reliable, but my advice is to change your thinking on measurement when it comes to mobile. It is mobile’s affect on your total brand message and the potential to improve the performance of other channels like TV that is important, not its stand alone ROI. Cross-platform measurement is where the world is headed because mobile has radically increased the simultaneous consumption of multiple screens. Understanding how that works is imperative.
Angry Birds, Dunkin’ Donuts and Groupon rolled out some amazing mobile rich media advertising campaigns during the first quarter of this year. We’re seeing more and more brands recognize the potential of rich media to drive brand awareness, customer acquisition and brand loyalty. They’re integrating rich features like photo galleries, video, social media, gamification and location to deliver truly meaningful display advertising campaigns that drive high ROI.
Here are our favorite ads in the first quarter, listed in alphabetical order.
Angry Birds by Rovio
Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Customizer by Hill Holliday
Groupon Whack a Deal
Macy’s Follow Your Heart by Joule
Victoria’s Secret The New Shapes of Very Sexy by Razorfish
There’s a big future on tablets for advertisers. Why? In addition to the rapid adoption of tablets (owned by 1/3 of U.S. adults) tablets ads have a big canvas on which to present content and messaging driving high engagement. Tablet users gravitate to photo galleries, video, social media sharing, gamification and so on. Plus, there are the features unique to the mobile experience, like location or the touch screen. And it lends itself to highly appealing creative ad executions. That’s what our CEO, Mihael Mikek, discusses in this recent article in TabTimes. Celtra tries to create a new standard for tablet and mobile advertising.
“Tablets combine the best of the PC and mobile worlds, “ says Mikek. “You get the screen size, which is similar to what we’re used to on laptops, so there are many more options in how you can display the experience.” He also mentions the combined benefits of the big screen and Wi-Fi usage which create an optimal environment for more advanced rich media creative executions. “The speed here is crucial. How fast can you load, how much content you can show, is there a video? Things like that.”
Celtra recognizes the way people use tablets is different from how they use their mobile phones. “Tablets encourage a longer engagement and you can present content in a better way,” said Mikek. “They typically perform 3-5 times better than mobile phones. There’s not much inventory out there yet, but looking at how fast people are buying them we’ll see more inventory very soon.” Forrester Research has predicted that 38 million tablets will be sold in 2012.
The company works hard to understand the marketing mindset. When developing products, it considers how it will be used in a marketing campaign, what brands are looking for and how users would engage.
Mikek mentions that the biggest success factor for tablet advertising is “excellent creative execution.” Some important questions to consider when developing a product are how is it going to be used in a marketing campaign? What are brands looking for? How are users going to engage?
“Advertising is not just science; it’s art and science,” said Mikek. “You can have all sorts of engines in the back that try to calculate how people will engage and when, and who will engage, but the biggest success factor is excellent creative execution. Is the message appealing? Can the creative execution catch the attention and awaken emotions? That’s why good agencies will always have business.”
“If you have very interesting and engaging content to tell the story, people will engage. That’s still the key. No matter how much technology is developed, content and what is being presented and how it is being presented is still very important,” said Mikek. “We give the creative folks the best possible capabilities so that whatever crazy ideas or content they have, they can present it through the most engaging and best formats.”
This week we’re excited to launch our Rich Media Post for Facebook Product. Of the Social Network’s more than 845 million users, nearly half log in via their mobile devices. Brands and agencies have long coveted this audience for its loyalty and devotion to the platform, but up until now there have been few ways to get and keep mobile users’ attention.
Celtra Rich Media Post gives brands many more options for engaging with their mobile audience on Facebook beyond simply “liking,” sharing or commenting. Rich Media Posts are essentially Facebook posts linking users to mobile optimized HTML5 rich media experiences. Fans can touch and interact with the brand, create visually stunning content and share it with friends. The result is a powerful boost to brands.
Rich Media Post is currently a pilot with advertisers such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Rovio, AT&T, Macy’s, Mars Chocolate North America, and Paramount Pictures, in conjunction with their agencies BBDO, Digitas, Group M, Hill Holliday, Joule and MEC. The pilot allowed Celtra to assess the viability of Rich Media Post for brands and how users respond to them.
All of these great companies are reporting back to us that their levels of engagement with their Rich Media Posts for Facebook are exceeding all expectations. In fact, the rich media engagement units across the Rich Media Post pilot campaigns generated up to 8 times more user stories and received more Likes and Comments than standard page posts.
As Facebook focuses more of its efforts on mobile, brands can leverage Facebook’s ad products to elevate the performance of their Rich Media Post. They can drive traffic to their Post with a sponsored stories ad buy from Facebook and when a user engages with the content, their interactions would be shared with their friends.
Celtra has always worked to exceed its clients’ expectations in rich media mobile advertising. We feel Rich Media Post is a significant evolution in how brands get and keep the attention of their customers in an engaging, fun and “in the moment” way, on the largest, most viral social platform in the world.”
Join Celtra and Verve Wireless for a Webinar
Wednesday March 21 at 11:00 a.m. PST/ 2:00 p.m. ET
There’s no doubt about it. It’s more important than ever for brands to connect with mobile consumers in a targeted, personal way –wherever they are—to make an impact and ultimately drive results
But what’s the best way to engage your target audience and how can you leverage rich media and location targeting to achieve your desired results?
Join us as we explore strategies for creating compelling rich media mobile ads and how location targeting can be used to create a meaningful, relevant user experience.
Attendees will:
- Explore strategies for creating engaging rich media mobile ads
- Gain a stronger understanding of best practices for location targeting
- Learn about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for successful mobile campaigns
- Review case studies from top Finance, QSR and CPG brands
Space is limited. Reserve your spot today!
Your presenters include:
Grant Stratemeyer, VP of Business Development, Celtra
Greg Hallinan, Chief Marketing Officer, Verve
Warner Bros. is letting “Happy Feet Two” fans preorder a copy of the movie and learn more about the film via their mobile device.
In addition to ordering the film, users can also download the Happy Feet Two mobile application.
The Warner Bros. mobile ads are running within Elle’s mobile site.
The mobile banner ads read, “Happy Feet Two – tap for more” and promote the upcoming DVD release of the film.
James MacDonald, New York-based general manager of the United States at Adfonic said in a Mobile Commerce Daily article, “Mobile is bridging the personal, one-on-one engagement gap extremely successfully and enables production companies, film studies and program makes to engage the audience straight into the experience like never before.”
Once users tap on the banner ad, they are redirected to a page where they can learn about the Blu-ray combo pack that includes DVD and Blu-ray disks and a digital copy.
Users are then encouraged to buy the film via the click-to-buy feature and are taken to Amazon’s mobile site where they can preorder their copy before it goes on sale.
Consumers can also download the companion app for the film, which is available for iOS devices.
Watch the video or read the full article on Mobile Commerce Daily.
And to get social, you have to create great content. Great content excites people and stops them in their tracks. Great content makes people feel good about sharing it with others. Great content makes social go viral. And it’s great content that makes great mobile advertising work, too. Why? Because social and mobile were made for each other. Mobile users gravitate to sharing tweets, liking posts on Facebook, taking and sharing photos and so on. Social lends itself perfectly to that behavior—but you need compelling content to generate the activity. That’s what our CEO, Mihael Mikek discusses in this recent BtoB Online article titled, Getting Socially Optimized with Mobile Marketing.
Author Jon Vanzile got Staples’ Director of Mobile Strategy Prat Vemana and President and “Chief Search Artist” Dan Golden from “Be Found Online” together with Mihael for their spins on mobile’s role in the marketing mix. Staples is a mobile believer for the speed at which the company gets feedback on content posted through the medium, “If you deploy something on your site, you often don’t get feedback on it for days. But when you deploy it on a mobile app, you hear about it that night. It’s a highly engaging medium,” said Mr. Vemana
Engagement is the key, especially for mobile marketing. Even though mobile is a highly personal channel it lives in a world where there’s a ton of competition for the user’s attention. Mobile has to be compelling enough to drown out all the other noise so the user can focus on the marketer’s message, preferably through content that grabs and holds attention.
“Advertisers are increasingly using mobile video and animation,” says Celtra’s Mikek. ”And the best way to deliver that content is through HTML5 coding, the new language of the mobile web. It not only delivers rich experiences like photo galleries, games, video and social media sharing, but can also access device functions such as touch, gyroscopic features and location awareness.”
All that rich and engaging content is nothing, however, if the marketer can’t somehow measure success. Because of mobile’s complexity, standard metrics like click-through rates are a poor indicator of a campaign’s effectiveness. Celtra feels it’s more important to focus on engagement, rather than click through. It’s a far better indicator of people’s attention in the mobile space. It’s also not enough to measure engagement on just one platform. User behavior should be measured across multiple platforms, wherever the campaign is run.
Be Found Online’s Dan Golden echoes this, “Ideally, any marketing metric system would simply track users in any single environment—such as mobile or desktop—but across devices, as well as social channels.”
The old real estate adage location, location, location, can be applied to mobile marketing, but it’s content, content, content that makes all the difference. Compelling content leads to good social, which leads to great mobile engagement. Focus on the content, and you’ll get and keep your mobile audience’s attention.