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Adidas leverages mobile video ads promising visual integration

Adidas is rolling out new mobile-first video advertisements that adapt to the look and feel of a Web page but maintain flexible layout and design.

The sports brand has teamed up with marketing technology firm Unruly to use its original Liquid Layout Technology. Unruly refers to it as a flexible and native experience for consumers.

?Humans dislike interruptions,? said Max Marine, director of business development at The Cline Group. ?Thus, users on the mobile Web and within apps also dislike interruptions. A technology that seamlessly adapts ads to different formats decreases interruption and enhances the user experience, will convert more users.?

New format
The new format, called In-Feed, intersperses sponsored videos into any site?s content stream in a way that matches the layout. Unruly refers to it as a flexible, truly native experience for consumers.

Adidas selected to use the In-Feed format to test its newest #predatorinstinct campaign. Previous versions of the campaign included a 30-second video ad starring Xavi, a top player of the FC Barcelona soccer team.

Unruly will only charge Adidas when at least 50 percent of its ads are in view for three seconds, a departure from current IAB viewability guidelines. However, there is some debate as to whether three seconds is effective enough to charge.

?Three seconds has grey area. Did the user just receive a text, hear a sound, then look down at the screen and close the ad?? Mr. Marine said. ?Five seconds is less ambiguous.?

Unruly In-Feed does not have a cap on the length of the sponsored videos.

Optimized mobile delivery
The In-Feed format is developed to optimize mobile delivery in response to what they claim is an increasing demand from brands seeking to use video ads to engage consumers on mobile devices.

This inbound form of marketing is designed to draw in more consumers. Facing competition from Facebook premium video ads, Unruly is looking to offer clients zero set-up process by implanting the format directly into content feeds.

?Take a look at inbound vs. outbound marketing conversion,? Mr. Marine said. ?The further you get away from outbound the higher your conversions. I would argue that the more visually integrated and less intrusive, the higher the conversions.?  

This appears to be Adidas? plan. Unruly In-Feed?s format allows ads to play silently, and the #predatorinstinct campaign relies heavily on eye-catching graphics and dramatic colors.

In-Feed also provides real-time reporting via the company?s Activate programmatic insight engine. 

The Activate video platform transcodes videos into compatible formats for showcasing via HTML5 and Flash, leading into a variety of In-Feed placements.

?Brand videos embedded via the news feed that auto-play play on the same human psychology as Vine and Snapchat,? said Mr. Marine. ?We like to see 5-6 second clips because we are predisposed to seek out novelty.

?I have no doubt that video advertising is here to stay, but will serve as a complement to social and display advertising, not a replacement.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York