Marketers: Take Advantage of the New IAB Guidelines, Not Consumers

The New IAB advertising formats are the right tools for marketers to use considering the direction advertising is moving.

During the last two years, IAB rebuilt their ad portfolios in order for two-thirds of them to be interactive, new, and multiscreen. Advertisers are taking advantage of these new formats and heavily implementing them. Some users might not like the new formats making it harder to avoid seeing the advertisements, but marketers sure love them. You can view the complete list of these new styles for yourself here. 

So What Do Marketers Need to Know About These Formats?

If these statistics aren't convincing enough for advertisers to use these formats then I don't know what is. When trying to acquire customers you want interactivity, interaction, and viewing time; which the new portfolio provides for marketers. 

Who is Using Them?

While the main companies I have been discussing throughout my blog (Chipotle, Uber, and Snapchat) do not include advertising on their websites I decided to take a look at different sources to see who was implementing these formats. Instead I researched online online for articles discussing these companies. From there I looked to see what formats they were using online and then compared them to what ads were on the same site from a mobile device to see if they were the same or different. 

When researching Chipotle I found an interesting article on the company on the Huffington Post that included advertising. The site online included a banner advertisement for Goldman Sachs and two ads on the right side for Kohl's and GoDaddy that did not conform to the IAB guidelines. The Goldman Sachs ad was the most effective grabbing he viewer's attention by being colorful and located at the top of the page. I also included an interactive portion that if clicked, sent you to a link to watch a video on how the company is helping the Brooklyn Navy Yard grow. The Kohl's and GoDaddy ads blended in too much with the recommended articles on the side and were not interactive or attention grabbing.

When viewed on my mobile device, the ads were different. There was a banner ad on the top as well, for Hillary Clinton's campaign, which is not listed under the mobile formats on the IAB website. However, there was an adhesion banner for comfortable retirement that followed the guidelines.  The ads were both effective in grabbing my attention because of their size and placement on the mobile site. Through using the adhesion banner to promote comfortable retirement, Fisher Investment took advantage of using one of the mobile rising star advertisements.

When viewing a Forbes article on Snapchat, I noticed the effective use of advertisements on the site immediately. When the page first loaded there was a full screen video ad for Gap International as included in the IAB formats. The ad was highly effective considering it took up majority of the screen. Next, there were sidekick ads for Uber, GoDaddy, Google Fiber, and Le Cordon Bleu all effective as well through their rich media and use of color and movement. 

 When I viewed the same article on my phone I noticed the difference in ads. There were two adhesion banners, one for IBM and one from Lyft. Again, effective use of the mobile rising star formats by marketers. The ad for Lyft caught my attention more than the IBM one considering I am a frequent customer and do not search or use IBM on a regular basis. 

To see how companies who discuss Uber use these ad formats I visited the yelp page for Uber. On it, there were two sidekick ads for the companies Toyota and the American Red Cross. Both ads were effective with their placement towards the top of the screen. I didn't ave to scroll down much to view them. Also, they implemented the new IAB guidelines in their advertisements. 

 

However, when I viewed the page on my phone there were no ads. Bad for marketers, but good for readers who are not interested in advertisements

If Chipotle, Uber, and Snapchat want to become effective websites for advertisers in the future they should personally take advantage of these new formats to implement online video advertising.  

Chipotle

With Chipotle having very creative YouTube videos it would be effective for the company to advertise these on websites to spread their brand message. Most people know of the brand but do not realize that the message of the company is sustainability. By advertising their videos promoting this message, consumers would be aware of the brand's mission to provide a healthy, sustainable meal in a sustainable manner. Given that their videos are so captivating using the fullscreen format would be the most effective ad format for them to use.

Uber

For Uber being such a fast growing company that so many individuals can benefit from, advertising their brand in an interactive and fun way, such as through video, would help the company. Many consumers are unaware of the other services the company provides such as food delivery in some locations and on special occasions they will even deliver cats to be played with for a couple hours. Advertising these perks they provide by emphasizing their delivery and ride services would most likely increase usage and interest in the brand. Using a filmstrip image approach to show these services and a time sync ad format would be most effective to tie them all in together. 

Snapchat

With Snapchat being an app that allows users to send images and videos to each other it would only make sense for the company to implement this media in their advertisements. One way to use the fullscreen format would be to include videos of users snapchatting and having it appear as though they are actauly snapchatting those viewing the ad. Viewers could then have an option to open the snap which would lead to the company's site or be able to download the app instantly if using a mobile device. Fullscreen approach in video advertising would also tie in with the fullscreen image and videos when using the app. 

So, if you're a marketer for a company, take advantage of these new guidelines! Not because you should, but because of their effectiveness and engagement and interaction they provide for consumers. You're brand and sales will thank you.

(n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2015, from http://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IAB_Ad_Unit_Poster.pdf

Luling, T. (n.d.). 15 Things You Didn't Know About Chipotle. Retrieved November 12, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/chipotle-things-you-know_n_4658711.html 

 (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2014/01/06/the-inside-story-of-snapchat-the-worlds-hottest-app-or-a-3-billion-disappearing-act/

(n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2015, from http://www.yelp.com/biz/ubhttp://www.yelp.com/biz/uber-austin-5er-austin-5