Celtra’s Rob Kramer explains how Celtra’s AdCreator platform makes it easy for advertisers and their agencies to buy and build rich media mobile ads at APPNATION in San Francisco. Celtra had the privilege of exhibiting with our partner, Smaato, and speaking on a panel about mobile advertising.

That’s a heady title—the top ten moments of anything are typically the most important, funniest, are game changers or so deeply affect the audience that they become some type of cornerstone or tipping point.

Mobile advertising is certainly at a tipping point.  Standards have come into existence, more people are carrying devices that allow for a fully realized advertising experience, and the industry is getting away from banners and other distractions which make the mobile experience clunky, disjointed and obtrusive.  Mobile ads are (or should be) experiences in branding, or better—part of the brand themselves.  The distinction between the two should be fading.  Celtra’s been creating beautiful, engaging and brand-worthy mobile ads for just a couple of years, so it’s extremely gratifying to be featured in this particular Top Ten Advertising Age article via our work for Westin Hotels’ iPad ad running in the new Weather Channel app.

The key here is to match the app’s content and experience-with relevant and specific ad content to extend the app experience, rather than disrupt it, as do clickable banners.  From the AdAge article: “The Westin Ad that arrived with the relaunch of the Weather Channel app in September actually exploits the fact that you interact with the content by swiping.  If your weather forecast says snow, the screen becomes covered in snow that you can wipe away to reveal a warm getaway destination.  Bring on more iPad ads that fit the content and involve some kind of aesthetics.”

We agree, and hope to see our work with Westin become the catalyst to something new, bigger and better in mobile advertising.  What other types of mobile ads have caught your eye?  Any that you feel are the “future” of the medium?

We are excited to announce that Gefen Lamdan, Celtra’s VP of Product, has been honored by Mobile Marketer in the Mobile Women to Watch 2012 List.

Mobile Marketer’s Mobile Women to Watch 2012 list celebrates the smart women who are expected to make a difference in mobile advertising, marketing, media and commerce in 2012. Women who made the cut shared the same qualities: dedication to craft, ambition, leadership potential, educator and role model.

We’re very proud and fortunate to have her on our team. Congratulations Gefen for an honor that is well deserved.

Gefen Lamdan, Celtra VP of Product

From Mobile Marketer’s Mobile Women to Watch 2012

“Many women are not aware of the wide spectrum of skills needed for this robust industry”

What do you most like about your job?

For me, the people I work with is my No. 1 priority. At Celtra, I get to work with a fantastic mix of them – an extraordinary team of people who come from different cultures and backgrounds.
We have a lot of fun creating new and innovative products together.

What is the biggest challenge in your job?

Trying to maintain the highest quality of products in this ever-changing ocean of possibilities is not easy. I get to challenge my extensive years of digital experience every day to continuously improve our offering.

What is your work priority for 2012?

To help my company reach the next level of maturity. It will be important to apply work flows and add structure to support the critical mass to come, but it is also important to never trade off creativity.

What will it take to attract more women to mobile marketing?

In my view, the entire digital industry is led by men, and mobile is no different. I think it will take awareness to attract more women to the field. Many women are not aware of the wide spectrum of skills needed for this robust industry. They tend to lump it all under “technology” and avoid exploring it.

Your proudest achievement in mobile?

I think it is that moment when I get to feel the tangible effect I have on the progress of things. I enjoy introducing cutting-edge new products, ad formats and creative solutions.

General Mills’ Pillsbury is targeting tech-savvy moms with its latest TV spot.   A new TV campaign for the brand’s Crescent baked goods can be recognized by the popular Shazam mobile app to launch mobile screens full of complementary content.  The ads show moms how Crescent dough can be used in variety of ways.

A specific call to action tells users to open their Shazam app to capture the audio cue and receive the content in an HTML5 format. Users can browse different photos and recipes that they can make with Crescent Dough and watch a video on how to prepare them.

According to Shazam, 65% of users do have their apps active during synchronized ads and 65% engage with the content.  Ads like Pillsbury’s with specific calls to Shazam action are the most effective.  With a subscriber base of 53 million in the U.S., more people are keeping their Shazam apps open to capture the complimentary content.

Recent research from Yahoo and Razorfish revealed that more than 80% of mobile phone users reported engaging in some mobile activity while watching TV.

Read more about Pillsbury’s campaign on MediaPost.

Quick service restaurant giant McDonald’s turns to rich media mobile to engage and drive consumers to its locations through a new mobile ad campaign that promotes its breakfast items.  The ads entice users to play a memory game to get to know its breakfast items.

The company is running mobile ads within Pandora.

When consumers tap on the mobile banner,  the ads expands to a page where they can sharpen their memory skills about McDonald’s Wholesome Breakfast. Through the memory game, users are encouraged to tap and match each breakfast item.

Consumers also have the option of skipping the game.  If they do this, they are taken to a mobile page that promotes McDonald’s healthy items which are 300 calories or less. They can also choose to find the nearest location to try out the products, check out the company’s site where they can look up more nutrition facts or play the game again.  The ads also incorporate social features that redirect users to its Facebook and Twitter pages.

Read more about McDonald’s rich media mobile campaign on Mobile Marketer. 

Mobile, video and rich media advertising are changing the way that brands capture user attention, bringing together sight, sound and motion to engage audiences like never before. Using Celtra’s video ad formats and features, advertisers can integrate video into their mobile ads in a variety of ways:

• Video Banners play directly in the banner. They can be played automatically without user interac- tion or triggered and controlled by the user.
• Tap to Video can be automated or manual. In the automated version, a banner is tapped, expands to full size and video is played in the device’s native player. In the manual version, the banner is tapped, expands to full size and a video thumbnail is shown. Users tap to play the video.
• Video as Animation. Video can be used as a high quality animated transition between ad pages. Available on iPad only, animated transitions can autoplay and video controls can be hidden.
• Video Gallery. Users can access the gallery via a menu within an ad and gallery thumbnails pro- vide access to different videos. Videos play using the device’s native player.
• Inline Video. Available on iPad only, videos can be played inline without the need of the device’s native player.

Jeweler Cartier has implemented rich-media mobile ads powered by Celtra on The New York Times mobile site to extend the reach of its Mechanics of Passion video series for its Calibre watch.

In the ad, consumers can select to watch a collection video or go to the mobile web page for the Calibre collection. The video is the second in a series and alternates between close-ups of the Calibre model and scenes of a man chasing a mysterious woman. Only a minute long, the video is ideal for busy consumers.

Cartier follows other luxury marketers such as Tiffany & Co and Ralph Lauren who have leveraged the New York Times’ mobile platforms to advertise latest collections. The New York Times mobile site is frequently visited by affluent consumers.

Read more about  Cartier’s rich media mobile campaign on Luxury Daily

Celtra hosted a Mobile Rich Media Hack day at the IAB UK offices. Various ad agencies attended including  MEC, Somo, MediaCom, TMW, LBi, OMD and Fetch Media.

Ad building in progress

A BIG thanks to all the teams who participated.   They built some amazing ads!

Celtra Hackathon presentations

Celtra has joined Akamai Technologies, Inc.’s NetAlliance Partner Program. Celtra’s involvement in the NetAlliance Partner Program will support the company’s ability to deliver the best possible user experience within rich media ads across mobile devices. By leveraging Akamai’s leading cloud platform, Celtra will further optimize the performance of its various rich media ad units for its customers around the world.

“Ensuring the best possible user experience and performance of our Rich Media Ads for our global customer base is a top priority, so leveraging Akamai’s global cloud platform was a logical fit for us,” said David George, COO, Celtra. “We’re excited to be part of the Akamai NetAlliance Partner Program because it broadens the opportunities for great mobile advertising. Our platform coupled with Akamai’s HD Network makes it easier than ever for advertisers to reach their audiences anywhere, with highly engaging rich media formats on HTML5 enabled phones and tablets.”

Read more

AdMonsters connected with Mihael Mikek, CEO and founder of Celtra, to discuss the current challenges facing the mobile industry and the future of mobile as he sees it.

Mobile advertising – What are some of the biggest challenges?

The biggest challenge of mobile advertising is creating great mobile ads, or from a higher perspective, creating great mobile campaigns.

That is not necessarily the challenge where the industry is spending most of its time and resources today. We are all still dealing with  numerous technical hurdles to enable mobile advertising campaigns. The good news is that the industry has come a long way since the introduction of HTML5, and is moving towards standardization, which will fully happen within the next 12 – 18 months.

The next big challenge is to move mobile advertising beyond the imitation of online advertising by leveraging its advantages – mobility and physicality. Ads need to improve from a relevancy and user experience perspective. For instance, we are developing location-sensitive ads, which display relevant content based on location in real-time – this means we are leveraging the advantage of mobility to improve relevancy. Physicality is another advantage, which needs to be leveraged in a better way than just for shakable ads. There’s a lot of room for innovation in this area.

Do you think that standardization of mobile SDKs will happen in the near future? What do you think would be the impact?

Absolutely, this is not questionable at all. It is already happening with the IAB’s first release of the MRAID standard.

Mobile industry stakeholders are working together to standardize SDKs.  A lack of standards has made it difficult for brands to build and run rich media ad campaigns across different ad networks and mobile platforms at scale.  The challenge with multiple SDKs is that ads for one ad network may not work on another. Plus, it limits the reach of the advertiser’s creative and effectively slows the growth of mobile advertising. SDK standardization will enormously simplify ad creation and trafficking for advertisers and publishers. Much of the current work that is necessary due to the technical challenges will be eliminated. This will have a huge impact on the industry and the entire value chain. Mobile advertising enablers will need to provide the value beyond SDK integrations.

Read more on AdMonsters