In Charles Dickens terms, our future Christmases may well be visited by the Ghosts of Devices Past, haunting the users of newer, flashier models. It has been well-reported that 2012 saw a huge rise in the numbers of tablet devices being sold and given as presents during the festive season, outstripping competition from the likes of laptops and desktop computers.
An estimated 122.3 million tablet sales in 2012 (IDC) is said to have boosted revenues forailing high street sales such as Argos and Currys, and the domination is set to continue.
With this in mind, brands need to be taking into account that while users surf the web on their tablet and desktop browsers, their advertisements are being seen across multiple channels and for many brands, the tablet format is a completely new frontier. Being touch-oriented, the tablet offers a whole new range of possibilities for interactivity when it comes to bringing advertising to life, and taking advantage of this new ‘interactive world’ will be advertisers’ big challenge this year.
Tablets are key
As a brand, Emirates Airline was one company that saw the opportunity to capitalise on the fact that tablets hold the key to some innovative ad formats. In conjunction with AdGent Digital and Starcom Dubai, the agency created their campaign, Harmony, which enabled tablet users to slide open the ad and choose from a variety of videos featuring different global musical instruments. The audience could then ‘mix’ the videos in order to create a unique tune. Users where then encouraged to upload their mix and share it on Facebook.
The engaging content was aimed at providing a platform for Emirates Airline to connect with its target audience, drive engagement in a creative and fun way, and create a connection by using the universal language of music.
You can view the embeddable video that showcases the campaign on Vimeo.
Emirates’ approach to using a touchscreen format to engage users on an emotional and fun level,resulted in almost 60% of users choosing to interact with one or more elements of the Emirates ad across Telegraph.co.uk and Independent.co.uk.
AdTouch-powered technology
The technology behind the ad was AdTouch, which uses HTML5 to serve into iAB standard ad formats creating tactile, playful, non-intrusive, rich media ads. With AdGent Digital partnering with leading publishers, it helps bring fun and engaging ads to their global tablet audiences.
Cameron Yuill, chief executive and founder of AdGent Digital said: “Emirates’ target for the campaign were ‘globalistas’ who see the world a lot smaller than it used to be. They are frequent travellers who have an open mind to experiencing new cultures; utilising the AdTouch platform made perfect sense to reach this aspirational user segment. Our campaign proved that engaging content coupled with unique ad formats specifically made for the unique tablet experience leads to a significant increase of both CTR and interaction.”
The Starcom Dubai team confirmed they were delighted with the quality of the produced ad experience and results alike calling the campaign a great mix of entertainment value to users and a compelling delivery through the AdTouch platform.
