#OpinionsThatCount: Are video ads the future of mobile advertising?

Digital industry members give mixed reactions. Some say it is the present, some say performance ads will remain and some say that a video ad grabs the user's attention better than banner and performance ads

Archit Ambekar | Mumbai | January 2, 2017

Ever wondered why mobile phones come with high definition cameras these days? Simple. They are there to capture life moments in HD so that someday when you look back, you get to see everything of that special moment in detail. Just the same way advertisers/brands want the audience to see their products in their best form. A lot of brands are taking this adventurous route to get to their audience. They are getting their agencies to write scripts, which are then shot in phone cameras.

In days where consumption of content has increased rapidly on mobile, advertisers too are looking at ways other than banner ads to reach out to their consumers. What better way to tell a story than a video.

BestMediaInfo.com spoke to digital experts and industry members to know if video ads are the future of mobile advertising. Here is what they had to say:

Experts speak:

Rohan Mehta

Rohan Mehta, CEO, Social Kinnect:

Video ads are going to rise exponentially. In 2017 we are going to see them as primary means of mobile advertising. On the flip side, performance ads will still be dominated by a click-to-website or simpler formats because you don't want to move the consumer away from the action.

Karan Gupta

Karan Gupta, CEO, Andbeyond.media:

The entire mobile evolution is becoming a smart phone evolution which is allowing video ads and video content. If we don't have video content to support the right kind of engagement then there is no medium for brands to reach out to them for any form of advertising. With the clutter of so many apps, I don't think it is the right environment for a video ad to fit in, but the beauty of a mobile phone and tablet allows the growth of video ads. The brand connects on a very personal level.

Chirag Shah

Chirag Shah, Chief Business Officer, SVG Mobile:

There are three possible screens that a consumer uses everyday -- laptop, TV and mobile. Mobile is the smallest screen. Any format of banners in the small screen will not have an impact. The only format that works in the small screen is video/ rich media. But video/ rich media has its own issues of buffering as poor connectivity. Consumers too find it irritating and want to skip the ad. Anything that can solve this problem with a skip option is doing great. Every advertiser loves this medium as it is a personalised device and can be individually targeted.

Vatsala Patel, Content, Channel Director, Culture Machine:

Yes, at the moment mobile advertising is flourishing. One can see that content consumption is moving away from desktops to mobiles; video content providing platforms are also evolving accordingly. It's an effective format for laser marketing. Will it be the future or not depend on how positively it impacts business? If not then there would be emergence of new technology to fill that gap.

Kishore Karumbaiah

Kishore Karumbaiah, Chief Creative Officer (CCO) and Partner, Langoor:

Ideas/scripts are written keeping in mind that it's going to be shot using phone camera. Time is spent on the edit table and then it's ready to go live. It might sound all simple, but there are certain challenges that one needs to keep in mind. For instance, the composition of the frame, the kind of effects that one can use. Phone cameras come with a collection of ready-to-use filters, from all kinds of coloured/vintage tints, slow motion to time-lapse. The world has started living out of their mobile phones. It is no longer just a phone. It's a device used to make bookings, payments, watch movies, listen to music, chat, surf...and in the end to make and receive phone calls. It's time advertisers start thinking of innovative ways to reach out to their audience.

Dhiiraj Kapoor

Dhiiraj Kapoor, Business Head, Digital Brands, Asymmetrique:

The biggest problem with display is around content. Ads become so small that there's hardly something that the brand can communicate. Mobile because of the small format is restricting us from telling a story. The beauty of video in mobile is you can watch the entire video. Suddenly you have the attention of viewer and video has become a major part for our clients. Today, there is access to clutter-free content and Facebook has done that amazingly. So I think video is the future.

Aditi Gandhi

Aditi Gandhi, Co-Founder and Business Director, ColourCraft Studio:

Video ads are most definitely not the future of mobile advertising. They are the present. With smartphones slowly replacing television as the primary mode of consuming video content, video ads have gained a significant advantage over traditional advertising. As they meet the demand for content that is not only captivating, but concise enough for millennial attention spans and can be delivered instantly, on-the-go.

This shift can already be seen as brands, even small ones, are switching to GIFs, stop-motion, cinema-graphs and other low-budget techniques to create motion content for digital platforms. In India, which is set to be one of the largest smartphone economies by 2020, the question is not 'if' but 'when' video ads become the new normal.

Manish Sinha

Manish Sinha, Founder and CEO, Skrilo:

Ads that move a consumer is what we want. Naturally, a video is something we presume tends to offer that moving potential. However, all it takes is a moment that is captured and this can happen – whether it's a video, a still image or a special connect between the product offering and the consumer.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com