Creativity Meets Technology
August 01, 2018
We recently attended MarketingTO where our team had the opportunity to listen and connect with industry leaders focusing on what happens when creativity meets technology. The event, held in Toronto, brings technology, advertising, and marketing companies together. The goal is to share knowledge between the three worlds with many influential and intelligent speakers, including AcuityAds’ own Chief Strategy Officer, Seraj Bharwani. The following is a recap of our brief educational presentation.
AcuityAds at MarketingTO
Our Chief Strategy Officer, Seraj Bharwani, spoke about video advertising and the challenges associated with capturing and holding onto consumer attention. Success for video ads is measured by the amount of attention/interest it gets from the audience it was intended, reach is meaningless without viewer attention.
The Issue:
Based on new research we have conducted that will be released in the coming weeks, only 7% of marketing executives surveyed reported their creatives are being watched all the way through, that is, they are achieving full consumer attention of their video advertising. This is evidence to the current struggle marketers are facing in capturing consumer attention for their messages.
Furthermore, there is a increasingly large gap between the amount of new content online being produced and the growth in media consumption by internet users. These points bring together a perfect storm for marketers trying to capture audience attention online.
What Marketers Are Doing To Combat The Issues:
Make better creative:
- Marketers believe creating more interesting / relevant content will encourage users to watch. While this is a traditional strategy, so far it has not proven to be the only necessary tactic to increase consumer attention as even the attention problem is seen across the board of marketers.
Shrink the creative:
- Content is shrinking! We have seen media spots come down from 30-second-long videos to 3 seconds in the past 3 years, we have also seen an enormous quantity of pushback from marketers who don’t believe they are able to communicate value in such a short period of time.
What does the AcuityAds Attention Advertising Approach Look Like?
Deliver an ad catered to the user’s interests:
- Based on all social signal data (e.g. What they like, follow, search…)
Reach the user when they are least distracted:
- Find moments of low distraction where you can reach your audience
Give control to the user:
- People will watch when given the choice if they are interested because they are making the decision and will therefore pay full attention
For a full understanding of the concepts above, take a look at Seraj’s full presentation:
