Keith Bendes Forbes Councils Member Forbes Communications Council COUNCIL POST| Paid Program Leadership
POST WRITTEN BY Keith Bendes VP of Marketing and Partnerships at Float Hybrid, Keith is a leading voice in the intersection of marketing and technology.
Originally posted at Medium.com Oct 18, 2018,08:00 am EDT
“How do we innovate the digital banner ad?” It’s an interesting question that brands are posing to their digital agencies. The typical answer is to innovative the creative itself with varying styles of animated content, more unique copywriting, etc. But if you position the question to instead ask how to make the digital banner ad more engaging rather than just innovative, then you really put yourselves in the shoes of the consumer.
At Float, we value interactivity above all us. We treat digital banner ads, like all mediums, as an opportunity to interact with consumers in a two-way conversation. At the end of the day, why talk at consumers when you can engage with them, and what better way to do so than with fun, interactive games.
Given the explosion in gaming, both in esports and live streaming, the value of gamified ads is not difficult to buy into. Gamified ads showcase the brand through gameplay, which offers consumers the ability to interact with the brand by bringing them into the ad experience. Any time you can get a consumer to interact, you are already a step ahead.
Games are, by nature, fun and playful, which can create positive moments of brand association at every point throughout the experience. The tangible interaction with the brand has a lasting impression and the ability to influence brand recall and association.
Gamified ads are not a new concept, but I am seeing their applications growing. They can tap into the competitive nature of players with plus ups like leaderboards and unlocks. If done right, a gamified ad can open an entire platform for the brand to continue expanding upon and engaging with their consumers.
Innovative — And Engaging — Advertising
Gameloft Advertising Solutions worked with Nielsen to conduct a study on brand lift for a well-known candy brand that executed a playable ad. The study gauged brand lift by reviewing how exposed and unexposed users answered questions about the brand. Gameloft shared the study’s results in a post on Medium, which stated that the overall lift of the campaign across all ad types was 44.5%, and the minigame format outperformed all other formats, 53.4% versus 22.7% for video ads.