AOL Corp. recently made a major investment in its programmatic marketing platform, and now the web services company is bringing marketers new tools to make their pre-roll video ads more engaging and interactive.
The company has launched five new premium video ad formats that will be sold through its One by AOL programmatic marketing platform across all AOL publishing platforms, such as The Huffington Post, and allow marketers to let viewers do things such as skip the video if they fill out a survey.
“As digital continues to evolve and grow, advertisers are demanding new ways to naturally engage with audiences,” said David Miller, vice-president, advertising product management with AOL, in a statement. “AOL has been leading the charge to bring premium ad solutions to market, and with the expansion into video, advertisers can combine the power of traditional pre-roll with new interactive experiences that enables consumers to engage directly with a brand’s content and information. This allows for more creative branding and unlocks new audience targeting opportunities through data and automation.”
The five new ad formats AOL is offering marketers are:
- Linear Expandable: An overlay displayed over the video when interacted with, allows viewers to go to an interactive microsite.
- Linear Modules: During a pre-roll ad, a set of interactive icons can be displayed that support different modular-based features the marketer can develop.
- Linear Sequence: An interactive end-frame is displayed after the video is completed to give engaged viewers somewhere to learn more right away with a click.
- Branded Slate: A seven-second animated branding opportunity can be presented before the pre-roll video content.
- Branded Skip: For those viewers that want to skip the advertiser video and get on to the content, marketers can offer that skip ability if the viewer agrees to complete a brief survey.
Other interactive features that can now be added to AOL pre-roll ads include media galleries, a store locator, polls and quizzes, coupons and movie show times.