Caroline Hugonenc
Global VP Research & Insights at Teads.tv

Brands need to brief their creative and media agency together so that they factor in the device and the platform in their creative equation. We spoke to Caroline Hugonenc, Global VP Research & Insights, Teads.tv, to understand the winning recipe for any advertiser, when it comes to building a brand-customer connection.

Tell us about your role at Teads and the team you handle.

I joined Teads in 2013 and am currently Global VP Research & Insights. My main role is to produce research and content that support our business. Research is paramount in our fast-moving industry, and being able to understand user behavior, anticipating trends, measuring audience and proving ad effectiveness are crucial for a player like Teads. Overall my team is responsible for managing the production of Teads’ extensive global research insights.

How did you develop and arrive at the idea for six-second ads research?

Six-second ads are becoming more popular for many reasons. First, with people’s attention spans becoming shorter and shorter on mobile, it requires a reduction in creative duration. The negative here is that some media vendors are struggling to deliver good completion rate for ads longer than six seconds. This is not the case for Teads, but we are committed to helping brands make the most of their ads. When we were measuring different formats in different versions, we were finding that the shorter version performed worse when it came to emotional engagement. So, we wanted to understand how can brands raise the bar for six-second ads and use them in combination with a longer form.

In 2018, what’s the true definition of “Attention”? How do you measure attention from the context of videos ads?

First, View Through Rate (VTR) — the percentage of impressions who saw an ad second per second, out of all the people who had the ad load on their pages. Second, Emotional Engagement — tested by facial recognition technology as used in the study.

In the research, you mention Mars placed two videos in the top 3 best performing ads, what are the benefits they have witnessed using six-second ads?

By implementing engaging six-second ads, Mars was able to witness an increase in completion rate and engagement levels with the creatives on mobile.

When it comes to building a brand-customer connection, what is the winning recipe for any advertiser?

To ensure you have a strong brand-customer connection, advertisers need to first consider their ad creative in the context of where it will be consumed and the sequencing of the different touchpoints that are relevant for their consumers. Brands need to brief their creative and media agency together so that they factor in the device and the platform in their creative equation.

For example, we recently worked with BP introducing a gyroscopic function for our Swing format. This incorporates the device into the creative through movement — in the ad, when you tilt your smartphone, the creative responds by changing the different publication methods of BP’s report, revealing its life-cycle. This clever and reactive form of advertising makes the ad more relevant and engaging for mobile, by incorporating the element of movement, which arouses curiosity.

Brands also need to test and learn what is working on mobile, and not just simply apply the old recipe that was working to design a good TV ad.

Businesses invest a lot to ensure their creative is top notch, what have they got to do to unlock the value of it?

Although businesses must invest a great deal into creative — when it comes to creating the perfect ad campaign they have to consider a few things. First, brands need to consider, at the early stage of the creative process, how their big idea can be told on different screens. Second, they need to leverage the different formats and technology available in digital that can make their ads work harder. By adding a skin around a player, we can see an increased brand awareness by 150% vs a standard player. Businesses also need to ensure that their ad campaign toes the line between engagement and intrusion. Finally, they need to make sure it’s placed in a quality environment, for example with a quality publisher

How do new technologies like AI & AR increase engagement levels with ads?

AI is here whether we like it or not and advertisers must embrace it or risk missing the next phase in the evolution of tech. This is already true for ad testing – with AI already powering the facial recognition technology of our partner Realeyes, based on visual recognition, as well as for creative design and execution.

• Personalized ads: Instead of creating one advert and delivering that on a large scale, Machine Learning will use data collected on each customer to determine their specific interests and then build an ad for each person.

• Chatbots: Encouraging users to engage directly with the advert, chatbots lead users to explore more of the brand’s offerings and become more motivated to make a purchase.

• Voice-activated ads: Voice is one of the simplest forms of interaction, you do not have to type, you do not have to click, you simply have to talk. It is, therefore, logical to assume that voice will become a key avenue for brands to reach their customers.

• AR filter: Adding a filter to the user’s camera lens creates a playful experience around the product and the brand that will generate enjoyment and positivity.

Thanks for chatting with us, Caroline.

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