Microsoft, PlayStation boost results with Stories ads on Google AMP

Brief:

TI Media, the U.K. publisher of consumer and digital magazines, partnered with mobile ad platform Picnic to create campaigns in its Stories format. Microsoft, PlayStation, Betway, Tetley Tea, Ford and Taylor Made are among the brands running ads in the format, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
A campaign for Microsoft's Surface Go on TI Media's Trusted Reviews website had an engagement rate of almost five times greater and dwell time more than six times higher than the industry standard for similar mobile units. Microsoft, TI Media and Picnic may continue their collaboration this year, according to the announcement.
TI Media and Picnic last month worked with Sony PlayStation to promote PS4 games, including "Spyro" and "Everybody's Golf," with the Stories format. The campaign was built specifically for Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and notable for including video in the Stories ad format.

Insight:

TI Media, which publishes Marie Claire UK, NME and TV Times, appears to be improving its value proposition for mobile marketers with the adoption of Picnic's Stories format on its digital content properties. Picnic created Stories specifically for Google AMP, which is designed to load quickly on mobile devices for less friction and a better overall user experience. The Stories format used by PlayStation, Microsoft and the other partner brands aims to mirror the format popularized on Snapchat and Instagram, which lets mobile advertisers show multiple images and text in a single ad that users can swipe to respond to a call to action.

Stories has become an increasingly popular ad format for brands, including Tic Tac Gum's social media campaign from earlier this month. Fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger last month partnered with mobile app Unfold on an Instagram Stories template collection to promote a clothing line ahead of Paris Fashion Week. Mondelez's Nilla Wafers brand of cookies boosted ad recall by 32 points after running vertical videos in Instagram Stories.

The Stories format was popularized by social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram that sought to provide advertisers with more engaging promotions on their platforms. Brands initially were slow to add the format into their marketing strategies, but adoption has steadily grown as Instagram continues to add features like shopping actions and other calls to action. One in three sponsored posts by social media influencers last year was shared in Stories, social media analytics firm Klear found.

Now, even audio platforms are getting in on the Stories format. Pandora last month debuted a tool called Pandora Stories that lets creators make playlists that combine music tracks with their audio commentary.