Doubleclick Blog

New Report Highlights How to Align Ad Format Choice to Branding Goals

Sally Cole — 2009-06-24T10:15:12-05:00

For every online display campaign, advertisers must decide what ad formats to use for best results. To help, DoubleClick teamed up with Dynamic Logic to study the impact of ad format selection on branding goals. In the joint report titled "The Brand Value of Rich Media and Video Ads," we compare the branding strengths of four common display advertising formats:

Image - GIF or JPG ads
Simple Flash - Ads with a short animation and single click-through link
Rich Media with Video - Ads capable of responding to user interaction, such as mouseovers, keyboard inputs, or clicks without a click-through, that also contain video
Rich Media without Video - Ads capable of responding to user interaction, such as mouseovers, keyboard inputs, or clicks without a click-through, that do not contain video

The report provides detailed information on how each of these formats impacts aided brand awareness, online ad awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent. For example, study findings show that, on average:

Rich Media formats are the most successful at driving purchase intent
Rich Media without Video is unique among the formats in its ability to positively impact all five brand metrics
Simple Flash is the least effective of the ad formats studied
For brand favorability, aided brand awareness and purchase intent metrics, Rich Media with Video provides a statistically significant improvement over Simple Flash at a 90% confidence level

The report concludes with a cheat sheet to help guide your ad format decisions and suggests best practices for achieving branding goals.

Download the PDF report here for free, no registration required.

Introducing DoubleClick Display Benchmarks

Pamela Eng — 2009-06-19T11:27:30-05:00

Advertisers and agencies who work on display ad campaigns often wonder "How do I know if my display ad campaigns are doing well?" and "What credible benchmarks can I use to compare the results on my current campaign?"

Some might rely on past campaign performance metrics while others might compare across multiple campaigns and advertisers within their client roster. All are fine means in the absence of larger, more comprehensive industry benchmarks.

This is why we're particularly pleased to make available DoubleClick benchmarks so that marketers, agencies, and publishers have a reference by which to evaluate the performance of online display advertising campaigns in the U.S., relative to industry norms.

These benchmarks are derived from a robust data set across DART for Advertisers, based on rigorous methodology with input from the Advertising Research Foundation. Benchmarks in this report cover those for 2008 and transect ad format, ad size, and industry vertical. The benchmarks are normalized across hundreds of advertisers, thousands of campaigns, and tens of billions of ad impressions.

You can download the report here. More in-depth benchmarks by industry are available exclusively to DoubleClick clients so contact your account manager to discuss further.

If you're interested in learning more you can attend our webinar, "Benchmarking Ahead: IAB Reveals the DoubleClick Benchmarks Report," co-hosted with the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) on June 24th at 12pm EST. Register here for the webinar.

Insights from Thought Leaders and Innovators in Digital Marketing

Min Li Chan — 2009-05-19T13:54:18-05:00

At DoubleClick, we've had the privilege of picking the brains of several of the industry's thought leaders and innovators in digital marketing. We've captured a few of these key insights through our ThreeQuestions for Innovators video interview series: These interviews span the gamut of key industry themes and issues, including current trends and influencers, ad exchanges, social media, emerging media, and the future.

This month we're honored to highlight interviews with Carla Hendra, Chief Executive Officer of Ogilvy North America, as well as Ian Schafer, CEO and Founder of interactive marketing agency Deep Focus. Carla speaks to us on the challenges in the brave world of digital marketing, while Ian shares his insights on rich media, video, and the role of the agency in the advertising process.

We're excited about our lineup of thought leaders and the conversations they spark - whether it's about opportunities in a challenging economic environment, trends to watch for in 2009 or ground-breaking insights from innovative fields such as neuromarketing, watch this space for upcoming interviews.

Create and Manage Rich Media Ads More Efficiently with DoubleClick Studio

Ryan Hayward — 2009-04-30T13:45:00-05:00

Over the last several months, we've been working hard to develop a new tool for creative teams who build rich media ads and the media agencies and publishers they work with. The result of our efforts is DoubleClick Studio, a free rich media production and web-based workflow tool designed to streamline development processes for creative teams and to provide more control over turnaround times. We've designed DoubleClick Studio to significantly improve upon the existing Ad Kit, and pave the way for future innovation in rich media.

To learn more about DoubleClick Studio or to fill out a form showing your interest, please visit studio.doubleclick.com. As creative teams migrate to this new tool, users will also be able to log in here, download components for Flash, and access the web-based workflow.

Here are a few of the features we think creative teams will really like:

Improved workflow that gets preview links into client's hands faster
A fully searchable archive of work structured by clients, campaigns and creatives
Integrated QA processes that get errors identified and fixed earlier in the process
Full range of intuitive Flash components and full APIs in both AS2 and AS3
Direct upload to DART for Advertisers ensures smooth transition to traffickers for approved creatives

Testimonials

Josh Race of Ogilvy RedWorks, a member of the DoubleClick Studio beta program, has this to say: "DoubleClick Studio has a clean interface and you will never get lost trying to figure out where you are, which is uncommon amongst ad-serving tools. Our developers are all now self-sufficient and not depending on the one guy who knows his way around some wonky interface."

Will Campbell, also a beta member and owner of ARC Media Group, a creative agency based in Southern California, says, "DoubleClick Studio can greatly improve the workflow for any interactive studio working with Flash. From development to getting creatives ready for publishing it has increased our productivity and decreased the amount of steps we take to accomplish different tasks. It really shows that DoubleClick has given a lot of thought into not only increasing productivity on the development side, but also improving the workflow on the administrative side."

Benefits for Media Agencies

Although not direct users of the authoring tool, media agencies will also benefit from DoubleClick Studio and its integration with DART for Advertisers (DFA), enabling agencies to streamline the process for getting rich media campaigns approved and live. With DoubleClick Studio rolling out on a global basis, it is now easier than ever to manage local, regional and global campaigns on a single authoring platform. Here are some of the benefits:

Direct link between DoubleClick Studio and DART platforms for instant transfer of creative
Automated creative checks reduce approval time for campaigns to go live
Preview links include a view into all rich media events that can triggered by the ad for easy testing, review and sign-off

More Details

For a quick tour of DoubleClick Studio, take a look at this short video from Shamim Samadi, product manager for DoubleClick Rich Media.

For those of you who have used DoubleClick Rich Media tools in the past, we will continue to support the Ad Kit though we do not plan to make future upgrades. We also want to note that, while we intend for DoubleClick Studio to make rich media production more efficient for agencies, advertisers and publishers who would like to own the entire process themselves, we remain fully committed to the highest levels of customer service.

To learn more, visit studio.doubleclick.com or contact your DoubleClick representative.

Now Available: Manage Your Own Ad Network with DoubleClick Network Builder

Rany Ng — 2009-04-20T08:30:00-05:00

Today we're happy to announce the general availability of DoubleClick Network Builder, a complete toolkit for building and managing networks of partner sites to create new revenue opportunities, expand reach and increase efficiency.

We first introduced this initiative a little over a year ago in response to the audience fragmentation challenge facing many of our publisher clients. This challenge is even more pronounced today. The overall number of websites and blogs has continued to grow in tandem with online audiences, increasingly fragmenting consumer time and attention across more and more online destinations. In response, many publishers continue to leverage their brands to build vertical networks of partner sites to expand their overall reach and grow advertising inventory.

With the potential revenue opportunity that vertical networks offer also comes a number of operational challenges. These include efficiently managing network inventory, partner management, billing and reconciliation and reporting. In our customer surveys, publishers also expressed the need for better inventory forecasting and reporting that was more tightly integrated with the systems they were already using to sell their owned and operated content. Similarly, our ad network customers voiced the need for a better solution to manage their numerous and often complex partner relationships and inventory.

With these needs in mind, we built DoubleClick Network Builder to provide a comprehensive solution for brand-name publishers and ad networks to solve many of the challenges involved in managing networks including:

Integration with core ad systems - Seamless integration with our DART for Publishers (DFP) ad serving platform unifies data and workflow across both owned and operated content as well as partner sites. This streamlines and enhances key sales and operations tasks including inventory packaging, forecasting, reporting, and trafficking. Publishers also benefit from DFP's industry-leading reliability, scalability, and service.
Efficient network management and control - We designed DoubleClick Network Builder to help increase efficiency and visibility through intuitive partner management, automated tag generation, simplified network inventory setup, and extensive controls for revenue adjustments.
Managing partner relationships - DoubleClick Network Builder's partner portal allows large publishers and networks to more easily provide the service and transparency needed to retain partners, enabling more rapid and profitable network growth. The partner portal provides partners with the ability to login and view their sites' performance, access detailed reporting, pick-up tags and receive messages from the network.
Managing complex financial reporting and partner payments - DoubleClick Network Builder's revenue and financial reporting can help publishers drastically simplify the partner payment process and improve overall profitability. DoubleClick Network Builder gives publishers the flexibility to accommodate a number of complex partner financial terms and features a complete set of reconciliation tools including expense deductions and partner payout calculations. The product's detailed revenue reporting makes it easy to monitor the performance of site partners and provide visibility across the network and for each individual partner.

Since October 2008, we have been testing a beta version of DoubleClick Network Builder with a number of premium publishers and networks, including Real Girls Media and InvestingChannel. These publishers realized a number of immediate benefits including significant improvements in the efficiency and accuracy of their network operations, enabling more rapid growth. Today, we're excited to extend these benefits by making DoubleClick Network Builder available to all publishers using our DART for Publishers ad serving platform. If you're a publisher who is ready to start using DoubleClick Network Builder to help create and manage your network, contact your DoubleClick account manager or click here to learn more. If you aren't already a DoubleClick client, please contact us here.

DoubleClick Rich Media Can Support New Outsized Ad Units Now

Sally Cole — 2009-03-10T16:09:27-05:00

Today, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) announced that over two dozen members plan to introduce larger format ads on their sites by July 2009. They've proposed the following units:

The Fixed Panel (recommended dimension is 336 wide x 860 tall), which looks naturally embedded into the page layout and scrolls to the top and bottom of the page as a user scrolls.
The XXL Box (recommended dimension is 468 wide x 648 tall), which has page-turn functionality with video capability.
The Pushdown (recommended dimension is 970 wide x 418 tall), which opens to display the advertisement and then rolls up to the top of the page.

For publishers and agencies looking to get a head start, these units can be done with DoubleClick Rich Media today and are easily implemented in either the DART for Publishers or DART for Advertisers ad serving systems.

Get Your Expanding Ad on the Google Content Network with DoubleClick

Sally Cole — 2009-03-05T15:23:12-05:00

Yesterday, the AdWords team announced the launch of their beta test for expandable rich media ads on the Google content network (GCN). The beta test is open to U.S. advertisers and agencies participating in Google's third-party ad serving program, of which DoubleClick is a certified vendor.

DoubleClick Rich Media has received an additional level of certification from Google for the expandable format. This extra level of certification is necessary because expanding ads on GCN need to intelligently expand in the correct direction depending on the placement of the ad slot on the page. For example, if the ad is displayed in a skyscraper on the right side of the page, the ad needs to "know" in real time to expand to the left.

Due to this special consideration during ad creation, DoubleClick clients that wish to run expandable ads on the GCN should be sure to loop their account manager and campaign manager in as early as possible. We look forward to helping you take advantage of this exciting new feature to make your campaigns more effective.

Three Ways to Accelerate Your Social Media Efforts

Sally Cole — 2009-02-17T17:42:05-05:00

Think you have social media checked off on your marketing plan because you have a blog, podcast, vodcast and active forum? Think again. Now that you've hit your stride with social media, it's time to accelerate the conversation by drawing in new participants. We'd like to share three ways to use rich media ads to do this:

Plug Your Blog: Embed your blog feed into an ad unit. Include a call-to-action in the unit to subscribe to your RSS feed.

Add Media to the Ad: Advertise new podcasts or vodcasts as they become available. Include part or all of the podcast in the ad unit. Promote links to subscribe to your feeds in addition to offering individual download links.

Bring it All Together: Package all your social media channels -- blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, comments feeds -- into one comprehensive widget. Allow people to share it on their blog or social network of choice. Seed the widget by running it as a shareable ad on relevant paid media.

See the Big Creative for Las Vegas

Sally Cole — 2009-02-04T14:13:23-05:00

DoubleClick data shows a strong correlation between larger creative sizes and results, such as higher interaction rates and click-through rates. So, this large format unit by Las Vegas Convention & Visitor's Authority and R&R Partners is sure to please. You can view the impressive 976x250 creative in our gallery here, or by clicking the screenshot below.

This ad puts a Vegas vacation top of mind through a video contest for the YouTube community. The contest invites viewers to create a video about why they need a Vegas vacation. Viewers of the ad are directed to the contest homepage on YouTube or the landing page at VisitLasVegas.com.

Resolve to Optimize in 2009

Campbell Foster — 2008-12-22T11:20:44-05:00

Check out our latest widget. For publishers looking to boost CPMs by increasing the value of premium inventory and optimizing yield for non-premium inventory, DoubleClick's DART Adapt Valuator lets you determine how much revenue you can generate – or retain – by simply flipping the DART Adapt “On” switch. See how much DART Adapt can be worth to your business – and share the widget with your colleagues!

Sharing Your Voice on the Economy

Sally Cole — 2008-12-16T12:47:01-05:00

Before the election, we hosted an informal web poll that asked our visitors the following question, "Which issue do you think the next U.S. president should make a primary focus during his or her first 100 days in office?" Visitors resoundingly voted for the issue of economy/recession. Here's how the 1760 responses broke out:

Economy/Recession 62.27%
Foreign Policy 11.59%
Environment 8.01%
Healthcare 7.50%
National Security 5.85%
Immigration 4.77%

If you're ready to get even more participatory, head over to The Davos Debates on YouTube where The World Economic Forum invites you to send in your solutions and suggestions for the key issues facing us today. The focus issues include the state of the economy, the environment, US politics and business ethics. The four questions up for public discussion through the YouTube platform are:

Are you confident that global growth will be restored in 2009?
Will the environment lose out to the economy in 2009?
Will the Obama administration improve the state of the world in 2009?
Should company executives have a code of ethics similar to doctors and lawyers?

The person who submits the best video will be invited, all expenses paid, to attend The World Economic Forum's upcoming Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters and interact with world leaders in person.

To learn more, watch the video about joining The Davos Debates:

Visit youtube.com/davos to join in.

DoubleClick Honored with Three ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards

Sally Cole — 2008-11-10T11:47:37-05:00

Every year since 2003, the ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards has recognized "the technologies, companies, and campaigns that made a positive difference in the online marketing industry." To win, a product or solution must be selected by a judging committee of industry practitioners, which includes contributors to ClickZ and Search Engine Watch. This year, DoubleClick was recognized as a winner in three categories: Ad Management, Mobile Marketing Tool, and Video Ad Format or Platform. We are very honored to receive these awards and would like to share the judges' thoughtful comments with you for each award.

On DART for Advertisers' win in the Ad Management category, Tessa Wegert, Interactive Media Strategist with Enlighten and ClickZ Media Buying columnist commented, "DFA remains the industry gold standard for ad serving and ad management. This is the technology that's behind the majority of the more notable and impressive campaigns we see and a sure bet for any advertiser on the fence about which company can offer the most seamless, streamlined campaign solutions."

On DoubleClick Mobile's win in the Mobile Marketing Tool category, Courtney Jane Acuff, VP and Director with Denuo and ClickZ Mobile Marketing columnist commented, "It is critically important for mobile advertising (buyable off-the-shelf solutions) to have a standard serving and reporting platform. The DoubleClick Mobile product enables digital buyers and planners to have consistency in reporting and publishers the ability to sell through integrated mobile packages."

On DoubleClick Rich Media's HD Video format win in the Video Ad Format or Platform category, Christine Beardsell, VP Creative Director with Digitas's Third Act and ClickZ Online Video Advertising columnist commented, "You want the creative and content you develop for your brands to look great. But, unfortunately, video placements in general have suffered from low-bandwidth specifications and site-publisher limitations. So any media partner that can make your content look its best, and that won't degrade your original vision, is a partner worth having. The new DoubleClick HD looks great. And if your content already has a compelling idea and creative execution behind it, HD quality is really the icing on top!"

Thank you Tessa Wegert, Courtney Jane Acuff and Christine Beardsell for your support and to all the other ClickZ judges.

Congrats to the Best in Digital Movie Advertising

Sally Cole — 2008-10-27T14:55:36-05:00

Last week, DoubleClick hosted the third annual Digital Movie Advertising Creative Showcase awards event. This event honors the best rich media creative work in digital movie advertising. This year five finalists were recognized for their work in three categories: best home entertainment rich media ads, best theatrical rich media ads and best multi-channel digital campaign.

In the home entertainment category, congratulations go out to:

AvatarLabs and Warner Bros./New Line for Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

In the theatrical release category, congratulations go out to:

AvatarLabs and Sony Pictures for Pineapple Express
Backward Heroes and New Line Cinema for Journey to the Center of the Earth

In the multi-channel digital campaign category, congratulations go out to:

Backward Heroes and New Line Cinema for The Golden Compass
Palisades Interactive and MGM for COLLEGE

We would like to give an extra congratulations to Palisades Interactive and MGM for the Best in Show award for their work on the multi-channel digital campaign for COLLEGE. This campaign used rich media expanding ads, a widget ad, Flash banners and a large social media presence to position COLLEGE as a hilarious, must-see movie.

To make it possible for you to learn more about these winning campaigns, we've made the show guide available for download here.

ClickZ's "Rich Media Research Roundup"

Sally Cole — 2008-10-02T19:20:25-05:00

Today, Tessa Wegert contributed an article to The ClickZ Network that perfectly sums up our new "Creative Insights on Rich Media" report. Check out her article here, then download the report.

Among the report's main takeaways:

Consider using video within rich media units when performance goals include click-through rate, expansion rate or expanding time
More specifically, consider using in-page video when performance goals include interaction rate or video complete rate
Additionally, consider larger creative sizes when performance goals include click-through rate or interaction rate

Thanks for the mention, Tessa!

Introducing the New DART for Advertisers

Jessica Doolittle — 2008-08-13T09:12:17-05:00

Today we launched DFA 6, the new version of DART for Advertisers, which includes a completely revamped trafficking interface. Based on feedback from our agency and advertiser clients, we know that trafficking can be one of the most complicated and time-consuming activities. As a result, we focused this release on improving the speed and simplicity of the DFA trafficking workflow.

For example, we:

Reduced the number of webpages required to perform the most common tasks.
Built quick links to tasks via simple icons and menus.
Developed inline editing to help you move through the workflow more quickly.
Enabled Excel imports and exports to eliminate duplicate data entry and reduce potential errors.

Ready to start using the new workflow? Contact your account manager to upgrade to the new DFA (which will also ensure you can take advantage of upcoming feature releases). If you aren't already a DFA client, please contact us here.

We're confident that the new DFA, plus our proven services and support, will help you meet the increasing demands of the online advertising marketplace. We look forward to releasing even more features soon. Stay tuned for more information.