The Changing Trends of Digital Advertisements
By: Kimberly Grant
Formats, formats, formats. There are so many different types of advertising formats that it could give a fabulous woman a headache. Not only are there many variations of advertising formats, but there are various types of fees attached to those formats. Many companies pay big dollars (billions of dollars if you factor in every company bidding on an ad) for advertisements; all in the hopes that more and more consumers will purchase their products or services. Below, I will discuss some of the latest forms of ads that are digital based.
Digitizing Life
The digital landscape has evolved quite rapidly in the past ten years. We, the consumers, use our phones less and less for phone calls. Who would have thought that we would be using our mobile phones for entertainment, news, socializing, learning, and fighting off boredom? In a natural progression, marketers have been working hard to figure out ways to capture, track, and market to consumers using their devices.
Most devices are broken down into a few categories:
- Mobile/smart phone
- Tablet
- Desktop computer
- Connected TV
These devices are usually distinguished into the above categories because each require a different marketing channel. The one unifying, general format for ads that appear in all of the above devices is that they must be responsive for omni channel marketing. Responsive ads are basically advertisements that adapt or change based on the device it’s being used on. In plain English, an ad that’s large on your desktop computer will be reduced in size when viewed on your mobile phone.
Rich Ads & Their Friends
For mobile phones and tablets, one of the ad formats used is called mobile rich ad interface definition (MRAID). It’s a super long phrase that translates to an ad that is responsive and even gains access to some mobile functions. Think: your Fitbit app and how it can send you notifications of text messages and phone calls to your wearable and then show you an in-app ad for their newest watches.
Many ad formats can be seen across all of the above devices, like in-stream and out-stream ads. In-stream ads usually play before, during or after a video. Think: Those ads you see when you’re watching a Key & Peele sketch on Youtube. The ads are known as in-stream, because the ad is seen while streaming a video. Similarly, out-stream is an ad that plays automatically when you’re looking at something like an article. It’s that video ad that starts playing when you click on the Entertainment section of AOL. If you’re like me, you frantically search for the “X” to stop the video box from making noise.
Televising the Evolution
TV-like ads have evolved, too. There used to be a time when a TV ad was just a commercial. Now, there are things like in-banner video ads on connected TV. Connected TV is when you watch television-like content on an Internet-connected television. So, when you watch TV on your Fire stick or Roku, that’s connected TV. There are also ads that accompany those connections. For instance, when viewing the home page of the Fire stick, there is a section that will play ads for current shows, movies, concerts, or sporting events just by hovering over it. Those ads are considered in-banner ads. The banner is the space that stretches from one end of the TV screen to the other and allows a viewer to see a responsive ad.
Reaching Out & Touching the Format
With all of these formats, there are endless ways to reach the consumer; as long as you have the funds to do so. Big companies put billions of dollars in the ad spend toward these marketing efforts and the targeting of audience members based on their viewing history. These formats may seem invasive, but they are all a part of personalizing the ad viewing experience. Looking for more marketing content without the ad? You can view my last, ad-less post here.
