GE vies for NY Times' mobile readers' attention with 360 video ads
General Electric is one of the brands demanding consumer attention within New York Times mobile articles via advertisements in the form of 360-degree videos that allow users to explore the ad space by moving their smartphones.
The brand often focuses on showing off its cutting-edge technology developed for a broad span of industries, and is driving the innovation factor home through ads that come across as futuristic and exciting to viewers. The New York Times is now launching capability that allow users to view 360-degree video ads on mobile articles, which benefits the brands by grabbing the user?s attention.
?360-degree video distribution is a major challenge today for brands and publishers,? said Brad Phaisan, 360-degree virtual reality tech for brands and publishers at OmniVirt, the developer behind the campaign. ?OmniVirt helps both brands and publishers distribute their 360-degree content through their existing channels.
?Publishers can turn their existing ad inventory into a VR/360 ad slot. And brands can promote this new format out at scale,? he said.
OmniVirt partnered with NY Times' advertising content creation studio T Brands to develop the videos.
Mobile video innovation
The New York Times is providing greater value to brands through futuristic advertising efforts that will likely garner a great deal of attention from consumers, rather than traditional ads that they are likely to gloss over. The new 360-degree video ads take up the same amount of space as a traditional ad, but will allow users to better explore the content by moving around the digital space.
GE?s 360-degree video shows off its expertise in technology innovation by explaining how the brand derives ideas from research in nature. The video takes viewers through an illustration of nature congruent with narration describing technology GE has developed and the elements of nature that inspired it.
For instance, the illustrated video depicts birds in a forest and explains that feathers from the animals help inspire designs for jet engines. Users can move their smartphones around to see more of the video at different angles.
Virtual reality pushes
The 360-video ads in NY Times' mobile Web articles are not the publication's first jump into VR.
The New York Times also launched a virtual reality application, which had more downloads in its first days of availability than any other app from the publisher at launch, pointing to the technology's significant potential for publishers (see more).
GE and vehicle manufacturer Mini transported New York Times subscribers into fully immersive brand experiences as sponsors of the publication?s first virtual reality film, which was released via the smartphone app (see more).
While the ads on the virtual reality app excite users on that platform, the experience was a bit closed off. But the new 360-video ads within mobile articles open up the ads to a broad, more mainstream audience.
?Brands are looking for ways to engage consumers through immersive experiences,? Mr. Phaisan said. ?Virtual reality by definition is as immersive as it gets.
?However, accessing this content is a major challenge today,? he said. ?OmniVirt helps bring that immersive content to audiences on the screens where they are.?
