Author: lpadmusr

Using a Les Miserables song in an advert may seem like a cliche, but the WCFF is definitely one organisation that could get away with it. Here the tone of finality and melancholy is perfectly used to show the pertinence of the issues – never shying away from potentially graphic images to really make the message hit home.

The whole video is in anticipation for the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, which opens this week in New York. You can find out more about the event at  https://www.wcff.org. The event aims to champion the welfare of endangered and exploited species across the world – including (but certainly not limited to) those in the ad.

You can also watch the ad below:

Black Mirror is returning to screens across the globe next week on Netflix, and the healthy dosing of dystopia doesn’t stop there for the month in this heartwrenching ad. 8 million people in France are categorised as lonely – bereft of caregivers and close family to attend on them whenever necessary. This new ad campaign shows how, no matter how far we innovate, nothing beats close, intimate contact. It’s a sad, important message – one that has surely had an impact in France.

The ad is shot beautifully – the longer tracking shots, the lilting music, all plucking the heartstrings whenever necessary; juxtaposing the normal and the abnormal.

Watch it below:

 

IAB Engage UK kicks off its two-day spell at the London Barbican on Wednesday, with an agenda full of relevant and innovative topics as well as high quality speakers. For those wanting to be on top of their game when the conference starts, we thought we’d run down 5 things to look out for over the 48 hours (apart from our red LoopMe t-shirts of course…).

1)      Mark Read – CEO of Wunderman, Day One, 16:10

Wunderman has become one of the leading networks of digital companies in the world, employing thousands across almost every conceivable market. Global CEO Mark Read has done an enormous amount to make sure Wunderman remains a cutting edge institution, so much so that in 2015 he was named as The Drum’s Digital Individual of the Year. It will be exciting to see what topic he decides to tackle during his fireside chat on Wednesday.

2)      Caitlin Moran – Columnist and Author, Day One, 16:40

Caitlin Moran has carved an incredibly powerful niche for herself as one of the forefront writers on contemporary issues; her regular column at The Times now being one of the most renowned features in modern publishing while her books have sold millions of copies in a variety of countries. No doubt her astute observations will contribute to a wonderful fireside chat with IAB Director of Marketing Alex Kozloff.

3)      Gary Lineker – Former Footballer and Broadcaster, Day Two, 16:20

On top of his unparalleled record as a footballer, Gary Lineker has gone on to become one of the most respected broadcasters of the present day with his fixture on Match of the Day. For those at Engage however, it’s fair to say that Lineker has a special place in the advertising hall of fame – his legendary appearances on Walkers crisp adverts being a fantastic matching of celebrity endorsement and brand identity.

4)      Poorna Bell – Executive Editor, Huffington Post, Day One, 11:20

In the tumultuous political climate, the Huffington Post has had a tough job staying on top of every relevant and burning issue while also guaranteeing a consistent number of quality articles. Coupled with all the issues facing the modern day publisher, there will certainly be no shortage of topics for Poorna to dig into.

5)      Dr Hannah Fry – Science Presenter and Author, Day Two, 12:40

Data has been a big buzzword within the digital advertising community for a number of years, but only recently has it been coupled with the notion of creating user stories or brand journeys. Dr Hannah Fry, author of The Mathematics of Love, will be going into more detail about this in her talk on Day Two – certainly one not to miss!

See the full agenda for IAB Engage here and do not hesitate to come find us through contact@loopme.com

LoopMe are very excited to announce we’ve been nominated five times at the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards! The EMMAs are an amazing night organised by Mobile Marketing Magazine, specially celebrating all the best in mobile practices and mobile advertising across the last year. The shortlist features over 100 entries from global brands and agencies across 29 categories. The winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony in London on 17 November – fingers crossed for all involved!

You can read the full shortlist here.

 

One of the main criticisms of a large portion of new comedy films is how they rarely invest in impressive visuals, instead relying on improvised lines or comedic sequences to deliver their skits. As a result, it becomes vastly more exciting when ads start creating something more intriguing and visually stimulating – here coming as a two-hander between Kevin Hart and David Beckham.

Beckham is not averse to doing comedy skits (having done so with James Corden on a few occasions) and is a fairly confident screen presence – something that Becks could always use to his advantage further down the line. It’s nice to see Kevin Hart also being less frenetic than his usual self – the actor has certainly developed somewhat.

For H&M this is a nice distraction from their usual ads, playing on comedy rather than their products. Seeing more in a similar vein down the line is an exciting prospect.

Check out the ad here:

 

Sometimes, brands or agencies can spend millions of dollars on specialised, digital content – premium creatives or exciting, sponsored or celebrity endorsed content. These videos might go ‘viral’ – a couple of million hits, maybe a few news articles here and there.

But then, by giving a YouTube star a free upgrade to a transatlantic flight, they can amass a grand sum of almost 20,000,000 hits in the space of a couple of weeks, with reports in major tabloids, broadsheets and blog sites, viral social media coverage and television debates. All for around 20,000 dollars.

The power of social video cannot be underestimated, and Casey Neistat is the king of social video content. His daily vlog now has 5 million subscribers, reaching a daily hit rate of an easy million within 24 hours. Only a couple of weeks ago he surpassed 1,000,000,000 channel views. Emirates didn’t even realise they had an advertising goldmine on their hands.

What is interesting is that, overall, the content on that video in particular is far less creative than a lot of Neistat’s work – filled with drone shots, skateboard rides and timelapses. Here the shots are confined to a small (albeit luxurious!) environment. You can watch the full video below – be sure to check out the rest of the channel to see even more fantastic content in action.

All publishers face the delicate balance of content and advertising, how to maintain a positive and engaging user experience while earning enough revenue to continue delivering the quality their audience demands.

The move from offline to online led to many ad formats, leaderboards, headers etc, being replicated onto desktop sites, and while many of these proved effective monetisation tools, they did not translate well onto mobile devices. The smaller screen size meant banners formats became too small to be practical for an advertiser, while also feeling clunky and intruding on the user experience.

Mobile requires a complete rethink of the way advertising is delivered for it to deliver the revenues needed by publishers to operate. One of the easiest ad format which has offered a simple, user-friendly solution is native video advertising.

Rather than operating like a pre-roll, which requires the publisher to create and host video content, native video is positioned among the publisher’s content, fitting in with the style of the app or mobile web site. It is high impact for advertisers, but still user friendly. A recent study by the Mobile Marketing Association found  that native advertising was responsible for a 23% increase in perceived ad quality. 

As well as improving the perception of advertising on a publisher site, native delivers better interaction rates. The MMA found users paid native ads 3x more time and attention than other units, while Business Insider reported an average of 1.84% CTR, far higher than standard display formats, allowing publishers to earn higher revenues and maintain the integrity of their sites.

Another important benefit to integrating native video, is that it allows publishers to add to their existing video inventory, upgrading from static display advertising, adding incremental video revenues.

With news that 60% of brand professionals  are planning to integrate native mobile video into their budgets in 2017, and the IAB predicting the the format will have a five year annual growth rate of 17% through to 2021, publishers should ensure they are building this new format into their mobile sites and apps. It is now possible to integrate with mobile native video providers, such as LoopMe, through Google’s DFP, easily allowing publishers to integrate video without having to make any technical adjustments to their properties.

As more users look to adblockers, native video provides a seamless solution to increase publisher revenues without becoming intrusive or damaging the user experience. Coupled with artificial intelligence, which delivers ads to users at the moment they are the most likely to engage, it is possible to earn significant revenue from native video on mobile.

Without doubt we are living and working in a world which is mobile first. Our smartphones are our number one device and the advertising industry has attempted to follow consumers’ eyeballs to the mobile screen. A quick search for the term ‘mobile’ on this site throws up hundreds of results, but as an industry, are we better at talking mobile than we are at delivering it?

From a campaign’s inception to its close, the advertising journey can broadly be split into three processes; creative, delivery and measurement. Each of these should be planned to be ‘mobile first’ but in the vast majority of campaigns this is not the case.

In terms of the creative, it is widely acknowledged by those working within mobile advertising that, in terms of video ads, duration really does matter. Repurposing a 30-second TV spot does not provide an optimum experience, a fact which has been discussed time and time again –  yet these creatives are still regularly put forward for mobile advertising. Orientation is another issue, users typically view short form video content vertically, but most video advertising is initially shot for TV and repurposed for mobile, ending up in landscape with two large black bars surrounding the creative. If the industry is mobile first than the creative should be planned with mobile in mind and a video should be produced which is optimised to the smaller screen.

Read the rest of the article here.

Knowledge is power and, as marketers, we are fortunate to work in a time where we have unparalleled insights into audience behaviour.

The rise of smartphones and the digital era have resulted in trillions of data points being created every day, revealing everything from our location history to how much battery our smartphone has left. This data is already being used effectively across the industry and it is common practice to create bespoke audience profiles to identify which users are relevant for your brand and allow advertising to be precisely targeted to the user.

But all too often, once data has been used to identify an audience, the industry recedes to the Dark Ages and fails to capitalise on the improved customer experience and instant feedback loop that are possible.

Read the rest of the article here.

James Corden is America’s new sweetheart, and Apple is keen to tap into this with their newest ad promoting Apple Music. Corden, as a recognisable, hoot-ish individual, seems like the perfect figure for Apple – slightly quirky, slightly creative, and often very silly. Clearly Apple want to tap into a lighter-spirited demographic – a world away from the more intense iPhone 7 launch ads from a few weeks ago.

Check out the ad below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQY3KUR3VzM