New Publishing Tech
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Ogury announces new mobile ad format for publishers: Q&A

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Ogury works with 3,500 publisher partners and is the creator of the world’s first mobile advertising engine driven by user choice. The company has recently launched its thumbnail ad format, the world’s first non-fullscreen format built specifically for mobile and a new alternative to traditional formats that interrupt content consumption. WNIP caught up with Sarah Jones, Global Head of Product Marketing at Ogury, to find out more…

Can you give us some background about your company?

Ogury was founded six years ago in 2014 and headquartered in London, but has since expanded across the globe to over 18 offices in Europe, the US and APAC. We work with top brands including Honda, Bose, Microsoft and Reebok to generate impactful mobile ad campaigns, powered by safe data, collected and used with the explicit permission of the consumer. We also help our 3,500 publisher partners to establish a trusted digital advertising ecosystem, driven by user choice and increased ad revenue.

What business problem is your company addressing?

Due to the pandemic, marketing budgets have been slashed to their lowest levels in 20 years. So it’s never been more vital for publishers to secure new ways to build and monetize their audience relationships.

Originally built for the web, traditional ad formats, such as inline banners, can negatively impact the in-app user experience. Obstructing the interface, these formats disrupt user navigation and distract from content consumption.

For a long time, publishers who were unable to move away from traditional ad units were missing out on top CPMs with no way to achieve high viewable video completion rates outside of the full-screen interstitial, which isn’t a viable format for all app environments. In order to compensate for low CPMs and poor ad performance generated by web-native ad formats on mobile, publishers were forced to play the volume game. This also meant advertisers were limited to the environments in which they could achieve the video engagement rates needed to hit their brand advertisement goals. 

What is your core product addressing this problem?

Thumbnail Ad is the world’s first non-fullscreen format built specifically for mobile and provides a preferable user experience to traditional formats that interrupt content consumption. The discrete, ephemeral ad format appears in a precise location within the app and delivers an elegant and effective advertising experience.

The unit is draggable, expandable, and skippable by the user, putting them in control of their advertising experience. which is proven to be less intrusive than traditional formats. Unlike other persistent formats, Thumbnail ad auto-closes once the video has played, unless the user chooses to close the format before this point, which only happens 6% of the time.

The interactivity driven by Thumbnail Ad attracts attention and delivers video performance previously only available via full-screen interstitial. The Viewable Video Completion Rate (V2CR) for Ogury’s multi-format video offering, which includes Thumbnail Ad, is 67% vs 54% of the closest competitor.

With the ability to finally achieve the viewable video metrics advertisers demand, publishers can now access top CPMs on mobile without having to run full-screen. As a completely new format, Thumbnail Ad is not just another demand source in an existing waterfall and generates 100% incremental revenue for publishers.

It is also the ideal format for cross-promotion because it enables publishers to seamlessly advertise related content or premium subscriptions to their loyal users within their content.

Can you give some examples of publishers successfully using your solution?

Magazine Closer is already maximizing user engagement on their mobile app through Thumbnail Ad.

As a brand-new format, Thumbnail Ad has opened up a whole new revenue stream for us, generating 100% incremental revenue,” says Grégoire Gaffié, Head of Monetization, Closer. “Thumbnail Ad delivers ads to users in a picture-in-picture format enabling them to consume the content whilst continuing to navigate the app, which is how they are used to interacting with content on mobile. It provides a great experience for our users whilst providing an increase in ad revenue for us, it’s a win-win.”

As well as Closer, international publisher Text+ is also successfully using Thumbnail Ad.

“We were drawn to Thumbnail Ad because it’s an ad unit built specifically for mobile,” says Alex Scissors, Director of Monetization, text+. “As a mobile-first company ourselves, the fact that Thumbnail Ad offers our users an ad experience built specifically for the environment that they’re in is extremely important. Moreover, Thumbnail Ad offers top CPMs from premium brands, yet does not interrupt our users’ interactions with our app.”

Pricing?

Thumbnail Ad is part of Ogury’s multi-format video offering. All Ogury’s formats are built to drive high viewable video completion rates and campaign delivery is optimized to achieve advertiser V2CR and ad recall goals. Cross-promotion campaigns are run free of charge when there is no ad fill. Campaigns are managed and run by Ogury and ensure that 100% of inventory is used to generate incremental revenue.

What are other people doing in the space and why?

Picture-in-picture has fast become the norm for consuming content on mobile. The picture-in-picture technology allows you to pop videos out of their webpage so you can watch while continuing to work in other tabs. Common in apps like WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram, it has also been adopted within the new iOS14 operating systems. Users now expect to be able to consume content whilst continuing to navigate their device.

While some mobile web providers employ picture-in-picture style ads, Ogury’s Thumbnail Ad is unique in the market for mobile app formats. It is also the only format of its kind that is ephemeral, meaning the unit auto-closes straight after the video has finished, to ensure a non-intrusive user experience.

How do you view the future?

Integrity is the future of advertising and consumers should have full control over their advertising experience. We will continue to strive to meet this goal. We’re passionate about this new ad format for its non-intrusive, user-friendly nature and ability to increase user retention by moving to an ad experience that is punctual and appreciated, rather than constant and pervasive.

As the industry currently stands, publishers are facing readerships who consider existing ad formats annoying and intrusive, creating a negative user experience. With the help of Thumbnail Ad and all Ogury’s formats, the consumer is placed in control of the advertising experience for optimal user experience.

Ogury will be purchasing millions of dollars of Thumbnail Ad inventory in the upcoming months. Publishers who are looking for an additional revenue stream or to increase their ad revenue, should feel free to reach out to us.

Thank you.