Blurring the lines with rich media

So, what makes for a successful rich media campaign in mobile? And are some of the things you’re already doing online compatible in the mobile world?

Don’t limit yourself to online
The success of rich media campaigns online has always been fueled by the interaction element. These types of campaigns increase the exposure of the advertising and hold the consumers attention longer by giving them something to do. Whether it’s interacting via a poll or questionnaire, using Flash, or watching a streaming video, any campaign that includes this interactive element meets with considerably more success than traditional banner advertisements.

So you have a campaign that’s doing really well online. Why not mirror it on mobile? Too often mobile is viewed as a one-off experiment or a standalone campaign. This makes it far more difficult to achieve true success and fulfill expected ROI. Use a strong media mix — don’t just stay with the mobile web, and be sure to unify messaging across all mediums. Leveraging a single message across all mediums helps to build strong brand affinity and reinforces messaging, leading to better results. With the increasing capabilities of smartphones and feature phones, the creative that worked online is often equally as impactful on mobile. The browsing experiences have improved, videos load faster and stream better, and the interaction element is more possible now than ever.

Be creative with your creative, and display your displays intelligently
Rich media campaigns have experienced a great deal of success because of the capabilities of online. But one critical element that can’t be overlooked is the creative behind these campaigns. Advertisers have found new ways to interact with consumers via rich media formats, and consumers have embraced this type of advertising by interacting with advertisements longer, traveling to additional websites, and by clicking on advertisements at a higher rate. The days of traditional banner advertising are no more, but advertisers need to remember that having innovative creative is only the beginning.

The old mantras for traditional media apply just as well to mobile. These include displaying ads above the fold, avoiding blind fills, and tying your brand to other brands. Blind fills and buried ads deliver impressions, not results. If you want to have a successful campaign it is imperative that you use site level targeting. Tie your brand to publishers that share your ideals. For example, mobile video highlights of sporting events naturally lend themselves to ads for sports drinks. It may seem like common sense but often fills are sold by the number of impressions with no way of knowing if you are reaching your desired audience. It is far more effective to deliver fewer impressions to a more targeted audience than it is to deliver twice as many impressions blindly.

You have a plan, now it’s time to integrate
The next step to a successful mobile campaign is dashboard integration. By fully integrating your campaign with a familiar dashboard agencies realize cost savings (no need for new platforms), ease of adoption (the media planners are already familiar with the existing platforms), and uniformity of functionality and metrics across the campaign. With this control, agencies are able to more effectively optimize the creative and manage the campaign across different media. The ability to adjust their campaigns on the fly, swapping underperforming creative for superior ones, makes it far easier to account for spend — ensuring that dollars aren’t wasted on unseen or underperforming ads. These tactics also keep the content fresh, bringing back interested consumers and attracting different users.

Recent technological advancements in mobile have enabled real-time reporting and analytics and campaign-level reach and frequency data allowing agencies to institute frequency caps, creative rotations, and retargeting — just like online.

Conclusion
Online advertising moved past the trial and error approach a long time ago. Today mobile is no different. Bandwidth is increasing, the SSI model is being replaced by third-party and agency dashboards are becoming more standard across the industry. The evolution of the mobile web to support rich media has opened the door for more and more creative advertising opportunities for brands looking to reach a target audience via the device they carry with themselves at all times. It only makes sense that the campaigns being served echo this evolution.

Bob Walczak is CEO of Ringleader Digital.

Source: iMedia Connection