LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 7, 2017) - AdColony, the largest independent mobile advertising platform, today announced the launch of Aurora™ HD Video, a suite of new interactive mobile video products that are fundamentally changing how consumers can physically engage with video content. The Aurora™ video suite allows advertisers to immerse consumers into video content in a way never before seen in mobile advertising, while also providing the scale to deliver TV-like reach with real results.
Powered by AdColony's Instant-Play™ technology, the new video framework leverages interactive content, haptic effects and other native mobile capabilities to captivate users. Aurora™ also taps into the powerful graphic technologies of WebGL to give marketers graphic capabilities usually only possible in professional CGI and gaming design, such as custom particle effects, textures, lighting and a physics engine that result in a more realistic and life-like experience for the viewer.
The new units provide brands an opportunity to showcase creativity, and deliver experiences that uniquely fit their specific branding and engagement goals. From creating fully shoppable video experiences where consumers can tap to add items to a cart, to swiping to make video content switch from day to night or rain to shine, to switching between concurrently-running videos in a "choose your own experience" style campaign, Aurora™ allows consumers to touch, tap, tilt or swipe a running video to truly affect what happens on screen.
"Some people may tell you that there has been interactivity in mobile video for years, but they are selling the industry short when they talk like this. Interactive video should not just be placing an overlay or some buttons on top of a video," said Will Kassoy, CEO of AdColony. "Advertisers want consumers to go deep with their brand, and from feeling the rumble of a car as it races down the road, to looking around an environment using an accelerometer and 360 degree video, it's all about immersion and interactive storytelling. This is what we're offering with Aurora™."
First-to-Market Ad Creatives
Disney, Buffalo Wild Wings and Genesis Motors, along with their agencies OMDe, Horizon Media and Canvas Worldwide, are the first advertisers to run campaigns with the new ad formats, and initial campaigns will run across North America, EMEA and APAC. Each campaign is being built with the AdColony in-house design team, Skylab, with custom creative that leverages the functionality of Aurora™ video.
- The first campaign to launch was for Disney's recent release, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. As a custom trailer for the film played, consumers were sent on a "treasure hunt" to look for and tap specific items on the screen, and they were rewarded with exclusive video content from the film for everything they found. You can view the experience here.
- The second campaign to launch will be for Buffalo Wild Wings. The chain's popular "Foodoo" doll will come in and out of the screen over a video, and consumers use their fingers to "catch" the doll. Once the screen is swiped, wing sauce fingerprints are displayed over the video where the viewer touched the phone.
- The third campaign will be for Genesis Motors, announcing their new line of vehicles. As Genesis is introducing new models to many consumers for the first time, the brand wanted to create a first-to-market advertising experience that showcases the vehicles in motion, while also giving viewers the opportunity to directly engage with what they are seeing.
"At Buffalo Wild Wings we are about engaging with our fans and look forward to implementing the Aurora technology and seeing how fans react to more interactive video," said Bob Ruhland, Vice President of Marketing, Buffalo Wild Wings.
"Buffalo Wild Wings thrives on new and exciting ways to engage consumers, and we have a focus on finding creative ways to weave our Blazin' Rewards loyalty program into all brand messaging. Adding a highly interactive element to the 'Foodoo Doll' campaign plays into consumers' passion for sports and their desire to be part of the game, so it was a perfect extension of our existing creative," said Kaitlyn McInnis, Director, Digital Media, Horizon Media. "The rich experience we've created around the Buffalo Wild Wings 'Foodoo Doll' has incredible entertainment value and brand engagement" continued Sarah Bachman, VP, Mobile Strategy, Horizon Media.
The Evolution of Instant-Play™ HD
AdColony has been a leader in mobile video since 2011, when they launched Instant-Play™ HD video, a proprietary technology that ensures crystal clear, buffer-free video playback in apps. AdColony also pioneered the ability to engage with mobile video with their 2013 launch of dynamic end cards that provide the viewer with a variety of immersive, engaging post-video experiences to drive consumer actions. Since bringing these products to market, AdColony has run over 26 billion minutes of mobile video ads, and driven 78 billion impressions.
"We made an early investment in video at AdColony, and that has been core to our business for years," said Kassoy. "With Instant-Play™ HD our goal was to show advertisers that video really could work on mobile, and it was reliable. With Aurora™, we're now going one step further and showing that it can be truly interactive and impossible to ignore."
The Aurora™ video suite is powered by the AdColony 3.1 SDK. AdColony's SDK is currently in more of the top 1,000 apps than anyone outside of Google, and this deep integration with top publishers allows advertisers to access the company's latest and most innovative technology in the most popular apps in the world.
For more information, please visit http://adcolony.com/technology/auroravideo
About AdColony
AdColony is one of the largest mobile advertising platforms in the world with a reach of more than 1.5 billion users globally. With a mission to elevate the state of mobile advertising by focusing on the highest quality consumer experiences that deliver outcomes for brands and publishers on today's primetime apps and sites, AdColony is trusted by Fortune 500 brands and more than 85% of the world's top grossing mobile publishers. Known for our exclusive Instant-Play™ HD video technology, proprietary rich media formats, our global performance advertising business and programmatic marketplace, and our extensive ad SDK footprint in the Top 1000 apps worldwide, we are passionate about helping brands connect with consumers at scale on the most important screen in their lives. A fully-owned subsidiary of Opera ASA, AdColony is a global organization with over 20 offices worldwide.
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