By Laurie Cutts, April 9, 2012
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.”