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For mobile video, the shorter the better, says InMobi exec

An executive from inMobi at the MMA SM2 Innovation Summit 2016 discussed the rise of mobile video and provided strategies brands can use to make the most of the format?s surge in popularity.

In the session, titled ?In App Video: A High Performing Personal TV,? the executive laid out some of the advantages of mobile video ? and users? preference for it­. She also laid out InMobi?s strategy for making use of programmatic video and some of the best practices for brands and marketers who seek to ride the video wave.

?In-app video is by far the most popular ad format,? said Kayla Wilson, head of programmatic partnerships at InMobi. ?The growth rate is better than any other format.?

Click-to-engage
In her talk, Ms. Wilson began with the claim that mobile video is the preferred ad format of consumers in the U.S.

The growth rate among ad formats shows that mobile video far outpaces traditional formats such as display and banner ads, along with rich media and native advertising. Video ads also give superior CTR, especially the shorter they are.

The main advantage of mobile video ads is what InMobi calls end cards. End cards are pages that appear at the end of a video spot encouraging users to continue their engagement with the brand beyond the video experience.

End cards can take a variety of shapes. Ms. Wilson lists click-to-but, click-to-watch and click-to-map as all possible ways to keep users engaged after they?ve viewed the video content.

To demonstrate some of these end cards, Ms. Wilson played a few of InMobi?s programmatic video ads that they created in partnership with Netflix.

The campaigns were made to promote Netflix?s original programming, including Orange is the New Black, Narcos and Marco Polo. For example, the campaign for Orange is the New Black put viewers inside a virtual prison through which they could navigate by tapping the screen and moving their phones around.

In each room of the prison, users could tap a button to view a different video showcasing a certain character or scene from the show. At the end of each video, an end card would prompt users to watch now on the Netflix app if they had it, or download it if they did not.

In another example, InMobi created a vertical video spot for McDonald?s. At the end of the video, users were shown a map that led them to the nearest McDonald?s location and the option to click it to bring up their GPS app.

This kind of room for further engagement makes video one of the best ad formats for getting users to stay involved with the brand beyond just seeing the message. It offers a call to more actively participate in the interaction, rather than be a passive observer.

Best practices
Ms. Wilson also gave some best practice recommendations for marketers who want to use mobile video.

The most important piece of advice: keep it short. Anything longer than 15 to 20 seconds begins to try the consumer?s patience.

It even helps if those video spots have a countdown, so that users know exactly how long the video they are watching will last, and be less likely to disengage or close the video than if they do not know how long it will be.

Next, brands and marketers should focus more of their effort on unskippable video than on the skippable kind. Skippable video, usually longer than 30 seconds with a skip button appearing after the first five or 10 seconds, is not as effective as shorter, unskippable video at engaging customers.

Finally, brands need to make sure that their videos are lightweight and fast-loading. Ms. Wilson recommends that video files be no larger than five megabytes.

The lighter the video, the quicker it will load and the less lag time for the user between seeing the ad and getting to their content.

?You really have to develop a mobile-first advertising philosophy,? Ms. Wilson said. ?We are not there yet, but it?s coming.?