Cannes Lions Witnesses World's First Augmented Reality Video Ad Format

Cannes Lions Witnesses World’s First Augmented Reality Video Ad Format in Action

Sudipto Ghosh

June 20, 2018

inRead AR by Teads Allows Users to Interact with the Brand in Augmented Reality Video Ads

Straight from Cannes Lions 2018, Teads has showcased the first public demo of its new inRead AR ad format. The leading Viewable Advertising Marketplace demonstrated the new Augmented Reality Video Ad format at the Cannes Lions Innovation festival via two demos created for Burger King and Ray Ban. Currently, inRead AR will be available through Teads Studio in the coming weeks and will enable brands to use the power of augmented reality (AR) to create highly interactive and engaging advertising.

This is just the latest innovation from Teads – in the last week the company announced a revolutionary new AI-enabled performance offering, Teads True Visits, and in 2017, the company was the first in the world to integrate chatbots into video ads.

Augmented Reality Video Ad Format Will Be the Norm for Years to Come

At the time of this announcement, Bertrand Cocallemen, Teads Studio Global Creative Director, said “Augmented reality has burst into public consciousness through apps like Pokemon Go, with more people familiar with this new technology. Teads inRead AR will give brands a way to interact with consumers in this much deeper and more personal way, that makes advertising more exciting.”

Emi Gal, CEO Teads Studio & Group CMO, said “More than ever, ads need to delight and surprise consumers. This format allows brands to be playful and create fun, memorable ad experiences that deliver results.”

Augmented Reality Video Ad Format Allows Users to Interact with an Ad

The Augmented Reality Video Ad format allows users to interact with an ad – for example, ‘trying on’ a new pair of sunglasses. There is no need for users to download an app – the whole interaction takes place within the inRead AR ad unit on a mobile or desktop browser.

1.2 Billion Monthly Unique Visitors Likely to Benefit from the AR Experience

The integration of AR is possible thanks to a partnership with DeepAR, a team of engineers and researchers from MIT and 3D designers previously involved with Candy Crush and Dreamworks. Through the partnership, Teads’ internal creative strategists and designers will use DeepAR’s AR and face-tracking SDK to enable the experience.

inRead AR will be available to brands and agencies in the coming weeks. Using inRead AR, brands and advertisers will have access to Teads’ audience reach of 1.2 billion monthly unique visitors, including 800 million on mobile. According to comScore, Teads’ global reach is ahead of Oath, Adap.tv, Brightroll, Adobe’s Tubemogul and Bertelsman’s SpotX. In many countries, including the U.K., the company’s potential reach (aka deduplicated monthly reach of its publishers) is larger than Facebook and on a par with YouTube.

Currently, Teads’ outstream video & display advertising solutions encompass a series of formats inserted deep into media content, like the inRead format, displayed inside articles. It has been changing the game within the advertising industry by creating unprecedented levels of premium inventory, which did not exist before.