Video ads might be the new poster child for the display advertising world, but questions marks remain over how much benefit brands are seeing from solutions such as pre-roll. Kiosked is one company offering an alternative.
Kiosked adds hotspots to images helping a prospective shopper to learn more about a particular product. Its video solution operates in a similar manner. While watching an advertiser’s video, it’s possible to cycle through items that feature in the movie.
PerformanceIN spoke to chief executive officer at Kiosked, Micke Paqvalén about how his company’s image and video offering is giving advertisers’ products some serious consumer engagement.
What Benefits Does Kiosked Hold Over Other Video Monetisation Technology Like Coull?
Micke Paqvalén: One of our strengths is that Kiosked video solutions are built to work on any video technology and advertisers can also use kiosks in any of their existing channels. This means advertisers do not need to implement yet another video platform. Another unique feature of Kiosked is our dynamic product database “back-end” which allows advertisers to create a location aware global campaigns efficiently with measurable results. In essence, Kiosked is a complete smart content platform.
Are You Luring in New Clients Because They’re Becoming Disillusioned With Display’s Low Clickthroughs and Conversions?
MP: It is not our sales pitch to increase click-throughs. Instead we enable brands and e-tailers to engage better with consumers through contextual and non-intrusive content. Our clients can build a successful business only when they have measurable and branded engagement solutions across all online channels and in all their content such as images, videos, applications, broadcasting. That’s exactly what we offer them. Of course the low click-throughs are a big concern equally to our clients as to anyone else but they don’t come to us for that. Instead they see the possibilities to improve consumer engagement as a wider concept.
What Take-up From Clients Are You Witnessing on Your Video Solution Versus Images?
MP: We have different kinds of clients – some have products that are more suitable for videos, some have products that are better displayed as images. However, more and more clients are producing video content as it provides higher engagement levels. We can clearly see this trend in our clients’ portfolios and their increasing interest towards our video solutions. Regardless of what form of the visual content our clients choose to use, all of them benefit from turning their content smart with Kiosked, thus, making it more contextual, measurable and social.
How do Impressions and Conversions Compare on Your Videos to Standard Pre-roll?
MP: On average click-throughs (CTR) on our videos are 2-5 times higher than on standard pre-rolls due to the rich experience, such as product information, we display. Where we see a huge difference is in the brand engagement. At the moment we measure on average 68% of video watchers engaging with the products in kiosks. This is a huge untapped potential for brands!
Are you Seeing any Differences Between Smartphone, Tablet and Desktop When it Comes to Conversions Through Kiosked?
MP: Yes we are. The best conversions are coming through desktop followed by tablet. Mobile is still struggling due to complex merchant check-out procedures. We are currently working on solving this problem as we see the mobile growing heavily in our core markets.
Is There a Concern That by Limiting a Consumer to a Few Items in a Video They Won’t Experience a Store’s Entire Inventory?
MP: We do not see it quite that way. Like in all advertising you have to find ways to lead the consumer to the brand with some targeted campaign products. Any given image or video can only contain a limited amount of products but these can already provide a strong personal experience with inbuilt contextuality and relevancy for the consumer. By providing a smart content experience Kiosked gives brands yet another channel to reach consumers. Another point is that a kiosk can include any service. It doesn’t need to be a product sale. It can likewise be customized for lead generation, in-kiosk videos, real-time loan calculations etc.
Do Advertisers See a Lower Average Order Value Because of This?
MP: Not according to our findings. In the end the merchants are extremely savvy in up-selling on their own real estate.
Are Consumers in Some Countries More Open to Kiosked’s Solution Than Others?
MP: The best consumer conversion results for us come from the most e-commerce savvy countries like the USA, UK, central Europe and South-East Asia. These areas currently hold the most experienced consumers in online shopping and advanced e-commerce culture.
Now You Have Both Images and Videos Covered, What’s Next? Is There Anything You Have in the Pipeline That You Can Shout About Now?
MP: There are three things we are focused on at the moment: scalability, mobility and video. It’s all about scaling and growing the business as we now have proven the business model.