Archives for February 2017

Vibrant Media Pioneering Insperience Marketing

New user-initiated and controlled virtual reality (VR) ads can place consumers within branded 360 degree digital environments within editorial on any device. Vibrant 360°/VR from Vibrant Media, the LEAN native ad company, enables consumers to put themselves at the center of a brand, product, or place. Via the new format consumers can virtually visit a tourist destination; explore a computer game or movie from the perspective of the protagonist; view a show home; attend a fashion show, performance or special event; and a whole host of other possibilities.

It is the first new format being deployed in Vibrant Media’s future thinking approach to brand communications termed “insperience marketing”. ‘Insperiences’ are app-free, immersive branded digital experiences. Vibrant Insperience transforms consumers from passive viewers to active participants using either VR or augmented reality (AR) technology. They prioritise interactivity, personalisation, creativity, contextual targeting and measurable scale to powerfully connect brands with people.

Vibrant Media has identified strong demand for such formats. Their research team found that nearly seven out of ten media planners and buyers (67 per cent) want more Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) ads incorporated into digital marketing campaigns, primarily to improve consumer engagement. Half of these media agency executives (49 per cent) expect the interactivity of AR and VR ads will help to prevent ad blocking.

Already 29 per cent of media agencies are buying AR and VR ads for their clients. The respondents ranked Automotive, Gaming and Entertainment as the verticals most likely to benefit from both AR and VR campaigns. The Travel and Property & Construction sectors are expected to be prime beneficiaries of specifically VR campaigns, and FMCG and Fashion will benefit particularly from AR campaigns, according to the planners and buyers.

Vibrant 360°/VR insperiences are IAB compliant and can be launched from hyperlinked triggers placed natively within the brand-safe, contextually-relevant editorial of over 6600 premium digital publishers reaching 450 million consumers. Vibrant Media can create 360° content from brands’ existing 2D video or develop content from scratch.
Compared to standard 2D video ad experiences, Vibrant 360°/VR insperiences attain 600% higher interaction rates, 700% higher content recall, 2700% higher brand recall and 200% more product intent.

When a consumer chooses to interact with a trigger for a Vibrant 360°/VR insperience they either open a window to a single branded environment between the paragraphs of editorial or launch an interface of multiple brand environments. Each environment can be explored in full screen on desktop and handheld devices or consumers can get the total insperience by using a VR headset or viewer from the format’s one-touch VR mode.

“Vibrant 360°/VR is the first product in our insperience range, as 360 degree VR technology is the fastest growing segment within digital media right now. We’re also seeing strong demand for VR products from media agencies. Our researchers also found that one in ten of planners and buyers have their own VR headset or viewer they can use to experience VR ads, and one in five of them are open to the possibility that VR will be better than the real world,” said Founder and Executive Chairman of Vibrant Media, Craig Gooding. “However, our follow-up to Vibrant 360°/VR is a new AR product we’ll be adding to our insperience offering very soon. Consumers merely observe brand experiences. Insperiences involve them. Insperiences go far beyond enabling consumers to control brands’ digital content. Using very accessible app-free AR and VR technology, insperiences place consumers and their real world lives within branded digital environments. Without the need for additional applications on their device insperiences enable consumers to see themselves within the brand, to become personally connected to and part of the brand.”

Vibrant 360°/VR is the second new video format launched by Vibrant Media in the first quarter of 2017. It joins the new Vibrant Vertical format (launched February 2017) as the latest additions to the Vibrant Video portfolio as the company continues to compete with the world’s specialist video ad networks on viewability, scale, targeting and budgets.  An additional augmented reality insperience is expected to launch by the end of Q1 2017.

 

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Notes To Editors

For further editorial information, interviews or images, please contact: vibrant@pwkpr.com or call +44 (0) 7904 414 889.

Research conducted by Vibrant Media with 43 media planners and buyers at leading media agencies.

About Vibrant Media

Formed in 2000, Vibrant Media is the original native advertising platform. Vibrant connects consumers in real time with engaging content and brand experiences cross-platform. Delivered directly off of words, images & video within a premium native environment, Vibrant’s solutions are designed to be viewable, relevant and engaging. With over 6,600 premium publishers, reaching more than 450 million unique users per month, Vibrant delivers native advertising at scale. Vibrant works with top brand advertisers such as Microsoft, Unilever, Chrysler and AT&T. The company was founded in 2000 and has offices in New York, Toronto, San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, London, Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf. For more information about Vibrant, please visit www.vibrantmedia.com , http://54.162.255.12/news/vibrant-news/, www.facebook.com/vibrantmedia  or www.twitter.com/vibrantmedia. Vibrant’s blog with insights on the digital marketing industry can be found at http://54.162.255.12/news/vibrant-blog/

Featured on OnlineVideo.net

We’ve all seen the stats. Ad blocking is on the rise, remaining a constant talking point for 2017. 

As a technology company, we’re in a great position to do something about it. In 2016 we released a new Tech platform. The focus was to slash our ad weight and become one of the internet’s lightest, scalable advertising providers. Yep, we went on a diet!

We reduced the ad weight for our In-Text, In-Image, out-of-stream video and high impact native ad formats by over 75% to just 30.5 kb.

However, we haven’t stopped there. We’ve been on a sustained diet plan. As well as improving consumers’ experience of digital advertising by loading faster on the pages of premium editorial, we have been a big champion of the Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB’s) industry-wide LEAN initiative to tackle the rise in ad blocking.

LEAN stands for “Light”, “Encrypted”, “Ad Choice Supported” and “Non-Invasive”. The new LEAN standard was launched by the IAB’s Tech Lab in October 2015.  Maintaining our reputation for innovation, early adoption of best practice and industry leadership, we are proud to be one of the first companies to offer LEAN compliant ad technology.

What makes us LEAN?

LIGHT – Comparing like-for-like formats, Vibrant Media’s ad weight is lighter than all its leading competitors. The in-text ad formats provided by Vibrant Media’s closest competitor are 480 per cent heavier than Vibrant Media’s. The industry’s most popular out-of-stream video ads are 390 per cent heavier. Widely displayed rich media ads and in-image ads are 146 per cent and 125 per cent heavier respectively.

ENCRYPTED – All of the ads that we display are hosted on secure servers and are communicated through HTTPS connections from end-to-end. We also continuously scans brands’ ads for malware and other vulnerabilities.

AD CHOICE SUPPORTED – Consumer control and choice has always been at the heart of the digital marketing strategies our technology enables. We were an early adopter of the AdChoices industry self-regulation program which enables consumers to opt out of being served behaviourally targeted advertising. However, as the ads we serve are contextually-relevant to the editorial content they are displayed within, consumers still see digital ads that are keenly targeted to their interests, even if they have chosen not to share data on their interests.

NON-INVASIVE – Nimble, non-invasive native ads are our stock-in-trade. Triggers for our ads sit natively within publishers’ content as either green double-underlined hyperlinks within editorial text or nimble overlays at the bottom of editorial images. Hence they unobtrusively fit the form and function of the digital content they’re displayed within. Publishers control both the number of Vibrant Media’s native ads displayed within content and the frequency with which each brands’ advertisements are displayed to consumers. As the formats are user-initiated, consumers never have to see a brand’s ad unless they actively choose to by either tapping or hovering their mouse over one of the ad triggers.

So what holds up for the rest of 2017? Well a good diet was only the first step. Now we look to exercise and how we can push ourselves creatively. We’ve launched a new suite of immersive ad solutions including VR, AR and vertical video. These are designed to really engage audiences and offer a true value exchange. If consumers feel they are being presented with something more interactive than just a standard ad, then they’re a lot less likely to block it.

So here’s to the rest of 2017…  a balanced diet and plenty of exercise!