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Mobile advertising expected to see a surge in creativity

The changes to the pricing strategies for mobile advertising announced recently by Apple and Google is just one of several recent developments that could result in a surge in mobile ad creativity this year.

In addition to Google?s AdMob, Apple?s iAd and other mobile ad networks beginning to standardize how they price mobile advertising, there is also the growing availability of tools that let agencies take control of the creation process for rich media ad units. Taken together, these developments are enabling advertisers to derive more value out of mobile rich media advertising.

?The amount of effort in creating mobile rich media is dropping significantly, which is great because this is one of the hurdles to growth,? said Michael Collins, CEO of Joule, New York. ?This will bring a lot more creative energy into the space.

?In the past, you had to rely on the person doing the ad unit to also do the creative, which was not great," he said. "Now, there is a lot more flexibility to create the units and integrate them into a campaign.

?There is a lot more creativity being poured into the space."

Pricing is normalized
In addition to lowering the minimum buy for an iAd campaign to $100,000, Apple is reportedly also setting pricing based on how much of the value chain they are providing.

By breaking apart the pieces of the value chain and allowing the pieces to be priced individually, this will support the movement toward more standardized pricing.

?Traditionally, the rich media process has been very cumbersome and the pricing has not been in line with that but, we are starting to see a lot of this change,? Mr. Collins said.

?The pricing at each stage of the value chain is starting to become normalized,? he said.

In the past, one partner typically did the creative and provided the inventory for mobile advertising all wrapped together in one service.

However, the supply chain is increasingly being split at the same time that new tools are enabling agencies to take control of the creation process and not have to rely on publishers to provide the ad unit. As a result, agencies can create the unit and take it to any publishers.

For example, Joule is working with tools from Celtra to internally create rich media ad units, making mobile a part of the entire creative process. Joule works with several brands such as Unilever, Dell, Macy's and Ikea. 

The result is rich media ads that are able to make a deep brand impression and drive engagement.

?The depth of engagement for our rich media ads is close to double the amount of engagement for a static ad,? Mr. Collins said.

Greater standardization
Interestingly, the changes announced by Google and Apple will force more standardization at the same time that they drive creativity.

?When you build an iAd, it cannot run anywhere else,? said Krishna Subramanian, chief marketing officer at Velti, San Francisco. ?Now that the budget has dropped, the agency can put together creative that can run through iAd and other places.

?Does it still make sense to have an A-plus creative that only runs on iOS or does it make sense to have an A creative that runs on iAd, HTML5 and everything else,? he said.

The changes could drive innovation in banner advertising as well as mobile video.

?It will force people to innovate within the banner space,? Mr. Subramanian said. ?You will start to see more dynamic banners with real-time optimization happening within the banner.?

Another factor that is likely to drive creativity in mobile advertising is that marketers are starting to focus on driving conversions and are not only concerned with branding and engagement.

?This is where we will see some innovation with companies starting to leverage third-party data and starting to optimize in real time,? Mr. Subramanian said.

Marketers are also going to be able to get a better view of consumers now that Google has come out with Google Chrome for Android, which will also support more creative executions by enabling marketers to match consumers? online and mobile activity.

?You will be able to mash up customer information and get a better view of consumers,? Mr. Subramanian said. ?This will really drive creativity by having this more complete view of customers.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York