Online creativity needs media innovation to thrive
Chris Humphrey, general manager, international markets at Adgent Digital, says if brands want ‘stack it high, buy it cheap’ online media, look no further than ad exchanges or DSPs – however, if brands really want to differentiate themselves, they should sprinkle creativity throughout their online activities…
Whether you’re a publisher, an advertiser or an intermediary, when it comes to securing display dollars or creating impact with your audience, creativity is still key to campaign success. Now I’m no creative director, so why should I focus on such a topic? Well, I believe it is very timely and here’s why:
The online industry has grown up. Advertising share continues to increase and online display money is on the bounce from the tough economic environment of 2009. Advertisers and their agencies are faced with an explosion of buying points for online media in addition to a plethora of technological options: retargeting, contextual, demand side platforms (DSPs) and real-time bidding to name but a few.
Indisputably, audience reach still plays a part in today’s online media buying considerations but with significant oversupply of online ad impressions these metrics are starting to take a backseat. Smarter advertisers and their agencies are applying good old media planning techniques and creativity to the task at hand where, from a media perspective, audience, environment and engagement scores are the key value considerations.
So where does creativity fit in? Creativity is by definition ‘the big idea’ as well as the foundation of actual creative executions. From my perspective however, creativity is more than just art director and copywriter. Creativity is also the volume control for an advertiser’s messaging. Creativity can shout loudly or speak softly, dependent on the media planning considerations of audience, environment and level of engagement. Innovation of ad formats will differentiate advertisers and publishers alike. The delivery of new, non-standard, ad formats can easily fall under the creativity umbrella and aid brand positioning and awareness.
If brands want ‘stack it high, buy it cheap’ online media, look no further than ad exchanges or DSPs who both offer as many standard IAB format ad impressions as you would possibly want or could afford. If, however, brands really want to differentiate themselves, try something new today: find media partners who are willing and able to innovate. Whether a page tear, a mega-banner, a video overlay or Tweetology widget, the media may cost more but with the right media planning insight, your audience will notice them. Who knows, they may even click/interact/rewind or re-tweet. Now what’s that worth? The likelihood is a whole lot more than those countless millions of leader board ads bought for less than USD $ 1cpm.
The truth is any online media plan needs to be balanced. Yes go-ahead and buy remnant inventory where reach is required and where positioning and environment are less important but also give consideration to more premium environments where user engagement and editorial product offer superior brand experiences. Coupling innovative formats with well thought-through creative output (married to the right audience) simply delivers a better advertising experience. Innovation and creativity get noticed.
Take online video. This year alone, according to YouTube, video in-stream advertising has grown by 82% in revenue terms. Online video offers advertisers the same creative opportunity as TV does. Arguably it delivers a ‘lean forward’ instead of a ‘lean back’ experience. An advertiser’s online video format is likely to be the same or similar as their current TVC. Whether a five, fifteen or thirty second video ad, moving pictures and sound (whether user-activated or not) creates impact. If what YouTube is sharing publicly is to be believed, users convert to purchase on a typical campaign return on investment of 100%.
Our own experiences with Tweetology shed further light on the interplay between creativity and online audiences within the social media arena. Combining advertising messaging with real-time Twitter feeds is innovative and early results for the likes of Lufthansa, FedEx and the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA) have engendered strong positive interactions with their respective target audiences. In these instances, our own creativity has led us to embrace Twitter and publish relevant tweets into a variety of ad units. With Tweetology™ widgets delivering CTRs of between 1 and 2.5%, they are proving media efficient too.
My advice: be brave with your online advertising executions. Marry your media planning rigour with a fresh approach to converse effectively with your online audience. Deploy frequency caps if you are concerned about alienating audiences but, most important of all, sprinkle creativity generously throughout your online activities.