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Banner format impressions are gradually increasing over time and already represent almost a third (30 percent) of all quarterly requested impressions, according to Celtra’s latest Mobile Display Ad Performance Report for the first quarter of 2015.
The report offers a look into the key takeaways from a breakout analysis of mobile display advertising products and found there are big differences in video completion rate depending on video play setting—user-initiated and auto-play.
The share of impressions in Web browser environments was at its all-time highest this quarter at 44 percent, while the highest Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) viewable rates were reported for the interstitial format—interstitials are Web pages displayed before or after an expected content page, often to display advertisements.
The report also found the entertainment industry represents nearly a quarter (23 percent) of all quarterly requested impressions, while the food and beverage industry is the second largest industry by traffic this quarter with 13 percent of total impressions.
Engagement time—time spent on an ad unit—was steady at around 5 seconds for an interstitial and 5 seconds lower than in the fourth quarter when it came to an expanded ad unit.
Overall, mobile devices tend to have higher viewable rates than desktops, while tablet devices deliver slightly higher viewable rates than smartphones.
“Larger-screened devices mean, eventually, more real estate for advertising. Creative canvas is not only getting bigger, but also of the higher resolution and of better quality,” Matevz Klanjsek, co-founder and chief product officer of Celtra, told eWEEK. “On one side this presents a huge opportunity for brands to express themselves and communicate with consumers on a much higher level, but at the same time it can expose even more clearly those who care less about the creative aspect of mobile advertising.”
Klanjsek said with the creative canvas moving way beyond 320-by-50-pixel banners, larger-screened devices are just further helping establish mobile as a prime channel for brand advertising.
“Creative is making a big comeback. After many years of dominations, media buying technologies might have reached a ceiling and all eyes are now on creative as an area where we’ll probably see the fastest and most significant progress in the industry,” Klanjsek said. “Brands are starting to realize that the message they communicate is at least as important as the media they buy. With all the audience data advertisers have collected now being leveraged to personalize the message, creative is becoming much more sophisticated and powerful and the driving force behind the next generation of mobile ads.”