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OLG flips for mobile advertising with new vertical video campaign

Ontario Lottery and Gaming is targeting younger demographics by shifting a new ad campaign into a vertical format to follow the evolution of user behavior and engage consumers on social media platforms in a way that aligns with how they normally view content. 

The new video ad series is being showcased in a vertical format for mobile users to organically view its content in way that is more natural to them. As Snapchat and other vertical video providers have sculpted users behavior on mobile, it is more common to see younger users viewing content in a vertical format.

?What makes the user experience unique is that it is seamless,? said Veronica Holmes, general manager of Juice Mobile. ?Most of the functionality of a smartphone is experienced vertically, whether that is scrolling through email, messages and social media, or consuming content. 

?The advertising that seamlessly integrates is the advertising that has the highest engagement and therefore will deliver the best brand metrics for awareness, recall and purchase intent,? she said. 

The gaming brand teamed up with Juice Mobile for the campaign in the agency?s first vertical video campaign. 

Vertical video

The video shows an attendee at a horse-racing event in which she has bet on the horse. The woman becomes excited once the jockeys and horses leave the gates and start to race. She then sees herself as the jockey on the horse. 
Narration during the clip explains that for a few short seconds, it is your horse, evoking the excitement people can experience while betting on and attending horse races. The video ad elicits emotion and enthusiasm for the brand, but is only 16 seconds long, enough time for the viewer to become invested without interrupting his or her experience too much. 

Marketers and video
Similarly, The Daily Dot is among the publishers planning to test a new programmatic vertical mobile video ad unit, reflecting the need to deliver experiences tailored to mobile users as traffic from smartphones continues to grow (see more). 

Condé Nast sports magazine Golf Digest also modernized its content by launching a new mobile-first vertical video series, bringing tips to on-the-go users through well-known professionals (see more). 

?Mobile is important in all advertising campaigns,? Ms. Holmes said. ?The majority of our advertisers and publisher partners have seen the scale tip in favor of mobile experiences ? that is, more than 50 percent of their traffic is coming from a mobile device.  

?Juice is focused on mobile advertising because that is where the audience is and advertising spend always follows the audience,? she said. ?For OLG, mobile offers a way to speak to their target audience (tech savvy adults) at scale and in a native, seamless way.

?The campaign is structured to draw in new audiences to OLG horse-racing events. Vertical video is able to convey the excitement of horse racing in an engaging and captivating way.?