Expert opinions, TECHNOLOGY

Transformation of creativity in mobile marketing

The widespread use of mobile-first products greatly influences and changes the digital landscape, so creative content development for mobile is going through a rapid evolution.

Quality creative content should speak the language of the audience and be able to grab user attention in a short time. The specifics of mobile is overabundance of advertising offers – you take your phone and open just about any app only to run into a graphic or video banner, a pre-roll, etc. But a smartphone offers far fewer possibilities of blocking ads than a computer. At the same time, a banner takes up a large part of the screen, so the user scrolling through their feed will not see any other ads for some time. This means “banner blindness” is not so much of a problem here. This actually improves your CTR and SOV (share of voice), the two indicators that are, on average, higher in mobile than in desktop advertising campaigns.

In the context where advertisers are competing for user attention, they need to be creative to emphasize the advantages of the product and show its real value as quickly as possible.

At the forefront

Over the past five years, the main changes in the digital landscape have been associated with mobile advertising. The reason is the emergence of some unique promotion formats: in-app advertising, stories, challenges, and promotions in app stores. A significant role in the mobile advertising market development is played by the apps and the ecosystem built around them. Take YouTube or Instagram – their mobile platforms have grown into independent brand promotion tools.

Everyone is now familiar with the stories format, because they are everyday practice and almost all social media have integrated this function. Initially, it emerged on Snapchat, and Instagram added it in 2016. A lot of companies now use this tool, from well-known FMCG brands to subscription content services.

Finally, mobile marketing is rapidly responding to highly publicized events and promo updates are happening increasingly faster each year. Greta Tunberg’s speech, Toss a Coin to Your Witcher, government dismissal – brands are using hyped events and memes to promote their goods and services as first creative ads are released literally within hours. Next morning they already appear in “how the internet reacted to…” type of publications.

New formats

In the past few years, mobile advertising has come up with several unique formats that are raising brand awareness in a non-pushy way.

Product placement

Product placement or brandformance is native integration of an advertised product or service inside an app or a game. Native formats are subtly embedded into the content and perceived as part of UX. Ad display mechanisms can be different, depending on the app interface. It can be a clickable button, elements or unique objects inside the game. This prevents rejection from users unlike conventional banners. This approach helps to raise brand awareness and cultivate users’ loyalty.

Playable ads

Playable ads are interactive mini games commonly used to promote mobile games. Users get their first impression about the game, learn about the gameplay, which motivates them to subsequently download the game itself. As a rule, this type of ad runs between 15 and 20 seconds. It is a relatively new format; therefore, conversion is four times higher than for static banners.

AR masks

In 2019, AR masks on Instagram and Facebook became hugely popular and this year they will continue to gain popularity. Brands are embracing the new format and creating their own masks to advertise their products or simply increase brand awareness. Users add their favorite masks, create stories, and their friends also learn about the brand. Instagram and Facebook masks can be created in the Spark AR app. You can upload 2D and 3D objects, animated items, face trackers and other effects. AR masks are currently used by many brands since they are the most efficient in the promotion of fast-moving consumer goods.

Short-form TikTok videos

The TikTok app became a hit in 2019. It began its active expansion in Russia in May 2019 and is still extremely popular. Despite the initial skepticism, brands are now widely using the app because of the low ad prices as compared to other social networks, and the lack of competition.

Since short videos are the main TikTok content, its requires different creative ideas than other social networks. In order to make advertising efficient, it should be made similar to user-generated content (UGC). It could vary from short videos to hashtag challenges.

Development trends in mobile advertising

Customization

Advertisers used to work with guidelines, but the current trend is experimenting and creating content that is close to the user. Brands try to stand out by customizing the approach to their target audience, while the amount of UGC advertising is growing alongside targeting variations. Close communication and an individual approach to the user begins with choosing relevant creative materials. Designers are looking for the way to reach the audience and to explain the advantages of the product or service in a simple way. Personalized content is currently one of the most efficient ways to prevent banner blindness.

Informal socializing

Communication has become increasingly informal as regards both visual aspects and message. Yet, it is important not to go over the top as in the best case scenario this will dramatically affect click-trough rate and in the worst case it will damage your brand’s reputation. User-friendly communication makes for boosting audience loyalty.  

Interactivity

The common feature of all aforementioned new advertising formats is their interactivity. This process to a large extent resembles gamification, with users interacting with the brand through a game format.  

Adaptability

As social networking services develop, the number of internal moderation rules grows as well. They can be renewed once or twice a year, and it is important to keep your finger on the pulse to avoid difficulties with posting ads.

Conclusion

Despite all aforementioned innovations, we should remember that a major function of advertising is boosting sales of products and services. Quality creative content must make customers aware of the product’s advantages and motivate them to buy it. Yet, impressive graphics that shows interesting content can have a lower conversion rate on mobile platforms. The aim of designers and media buyers is to develop clear and comprehensible content for clients; it should be precise, esthetically pleasing and eye-catching. The use and combination of these two approaches will boost users’ interest as well as high conversion rate indicators. Specialists in design and media buying who are aware of this fine line are an essential success factor for any business today.

Making creative content largely resembles the Achilles paradox, with Achilles racing to catch a tortoise: the more actively the industry develops, the more easily users get bored of new formats.   

By Anton Kudashov, CEO, MobX Agency

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