DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — SEPTEMBER 9, 2018 — AdColony, the ad quality video marketplace, is introducing its interactive mobile video technology to the Middle East for the first time. Aurora™ HD Video interactive ads deliver more immersive experiences for mobile users and allow brands to tell stories in unique and interesting ways. Partnering with Unilever, AdColony ran its first Middle East Aurora™ campaigns for the Sunsilk, Brooke Bond brands, introducing the latest mobile advertising technology to the region.
For the first time in digital advertising, Aurora™ gives brands the chance to truly measure the attention users give to ads. Since users are engaging with the video while the video is playing, brands know that the full attention of the user is on the screen.
Initial Results
Last year when launching the Aurora™ technology in North America and Europe, AdColony released the results of the first brand campaigns using Aurora™ HD Video. In three separate campaigns, with three different creative executions, AdColony found that 43 percent of people who viewed an ad engaged with it actively, easily surpassing industry benchmarks and performing over 7 times better than the AdColony platform average.
Nearly 50 percent of all people that saw an ad engaged with it and most consumers would touch, tap or swipe the ads multiple times. The total number of engagements per person was over fifty times industry averages reported in the Global Video Benchmarks Report from Innovid.
Engaging with the video also led to increased post-video activity, and in one campaign, the Aurora™ HD Video led to three times the average enrollment for the company’s loyalty program and doubled click-throughs to the site, when compared to a standard video campaign.
Aurora™ HD Video campaigns also contribute greatly to AdColony’s current 93.7 percent viewable completion rate, which is over three times the industry averages reported by Moat.
Aurora™ In the Middle East
“We are proud to work with partners like Unilever in the region to help drive awareness, engagement and purchase intent in new and exciting ways on mobile devices,” said Samantha Billingham, AdColony’s regional sales director for the Middle East, “Leveraging the power of creativity and interactive capabilities of our Aurora™ HD Video technology, these brands were experienced through wonderfully immersive experiences that engaged their consumers and delivered powerful results.”
Beyond its strong engagement metrics, Aurora™ HD Video also drove healthy lifts across key brand metrics. A third-party study with Research Now found that Aurora™ HD Video resulted in a nearly 3 percent lift in purchase intent, which is triple the average digital campaign lift. The campaigns also drove an increase of over 7 percent in brand favorability (far above the digital benchmark of 0.10 percent lift) and brand familiarity was boosted by a delta of 1.79 percent, beating the digital benchmark of 0.20 percent lift.
The initial campaigns with Aurora™ HD Video were for Sunsilk, Brooke Bond and Jif. In all three campaigns, AdColony worked directly with the brands and agencies on unique and custom creative concepts. The campaigns allowed consumers to interact with the video ads in a variety of ways, ranging from dragging a slide, tapping a character or color on the screen, to wiping away dust and debris to better reveal the video in front of them. All three campaigns utilized true interactivity, the advanced Aurora™ HD graphic capabilities to further immerse the viewer.
“Our mobile campaign allowed us to take what had already been a successful TV spot and incorporate a level of interactivity that allowed people to engage with our brand in an entirely new way,” said Samantha Billingham. “The campaign provided measurable results that we are very pleased with, ranging from clicks to loyalty program sign-ups. It has been a great indicator of the impact of building a unique creative experience can produce.”
Case Studies
For video breakdowns of the Jif and Sunsilk ad creatives, check out our detailed case studies below:
About AdColony
AdColony is one of the largest video advertising platforms in the world with a reach of more than 1.5 billion users globally. Known for its unparalleled 3rd party verified viewability rates, exclusive Instant-Play™ HD video technology, proprietary rich media formats, global performance advertising business and programmatic marketplace, and extensive SDK footprint in the Top 1000 apps worldwide, they are passionate about helping brands connect with consumers at scale on the most important screen in their lives. A fully-owned subsidiary of Otello Corporation ASA, AdColony is a global organization with over 20 offices worldwide.