From interactive videos to creative CTAs, here’s how top 5 brands are taking a new approach to video ads and garnering engagement

In an attention deficit mobile ad space, marketers have realized the importance of creating increasingly engaging ads. In an effort to make ads more interactive, brands have discovered the potential of video ads, as a surefire way of establishing strong brand recall amongst key market segments. Additionally, the consumption of video content has increased during the pandemic, making it a potentially lucrative strategy for marketers to tap in to.

Providing advertisers with the opportunity to deliver impeccable storytelling ads in a video format, it’s no wonder that these concepts are favored greatly. Integrating sophisticated phone features and sensors with eye-catching visuals, mCanvas, the experiential storytelling ad platform, has been creating quality video ads on small screens for top-tier brands. In addition to interactive video, the company also has a dedicated ad format – Streambox, that embeds video natively between editorial content.

Here are the top 5 brands that leveraged video ads to create unique experiences for users on mobile and to boost user engagement.

1. United Colors of Benneton – #UnitedByFaith

United Colors of Benneton captivated users’ attention with a mobile-led campaign that creatively incorporated storytelling into its narrative to provide users with a memorable ad experience.

Highlighting the touching story of an unsung hero who united a village by crossing the boundaries of faith in a video ad, users were asked questions about the man’s story in the video. In order to answer, they had to tap on the microphone on the screen to speak the right answer, in order to progress with the creative.

2. Mankind Pharma – Unwanted 21

One of India’s top five leading pharmaceutical companies, Mankind Pharma wanted to increase awareness of its best birth control pill – Unwanted 21 Days, in a way that would resonate well with users.

As the user scrolled, mCanvas’ native outstream video ad appeared on the screen, displaying details about the product. Below the video, a banner featured the copy ‘Pregnancy by choice, not chance!’, and a CTA ‘Know More’, that directed users to the brand’s landing page for more information.

“To introduce our morning after pill – Unwanted 21, we were on the lookout for an ad concept that would intrigue users in an innovative way. Partnering with Logicserve Digital and mCanvas enabled us to engage our audiences with a highly relevant ad, that garnered incredible and competitive industry results,” said Joy Chatterjee, Deputy General Manager, Mankind Pharma.

Prasad Shejale, Founder & CEO, Logicserve Digital added, “Innovation is key to achieving unique results. We believe in innovation and always endeavour to design creative solutions that are tailor-made for our clients’ specific goals. For this campaign, we partnered with mCanvas and worked on producing these intuitive ads using some of the new formats. We also ensured to use a localised approach and tactically incorporated a multi-linguistic strategy basis the location of the target audience. We are very happy with the results and are glad we could help Mankind Pharma fulfil their goal of reaching out to the users in an intriguing way. I would like to thank our partner, mCanvas, for delivering such a great campaign.”

3. Arun Icecreams 

Promoting its wide range of ice creams with a creative twist, Arun Icecreams engaged users with an outstream video ad that featured four video commercials that educated users about the product in an entertaining manner.

Encouraging users to toggle between videos, they could then learn about the different ice cream flavours available, building strong brand recall.

4. Canara Robeco Mutual Funds

Enabling users to learn about mutual funds creatively, Canara Robeco Mutual Fund engaged users with a voice-enabled ad, that created a lasting impression among its market segment.

The rich-media mobile ad prompted users to say, “Know More”, thereafter showcasing six different videos, featuring different target market segments, suggesting that there’s a mutual fund for users at different levels, based on their needs.

5. Rupa Udgaathan

Promoting its range of innerwear in a distinct manner, Rupa unveiled a tech-enabled mobile ad that seamlessly integrated video into the ad experience.

Encouraging users to physically take a step forward, the ad then revealed a video ad that effectively featured the brand’s line of innerwear products. More interestingly, the CTA ‘Locate Store’ in the ad directed users to the Google Maps app, and displayed the location of stores based on the user’s location.

Riki Chakraborty, Heading Digital Marketing, Rupa and Company Ltd. said, “Our customers are at the epicentre of our business and it was paramount for us to promote the reopening of our store with an ad that would involve them. Bypassing the limitations that the lockdown has imposed on us, we are glad that the innovative ad created by mCanvas enabled our audience to be part of this momentous occasion, virtually.”

From the top 5 campaigns showcased above, one thing is evident – brands are rapidly integrating video ads as an integral part of their marketing strategy, as they’ve done everything, from fulfilling brand objectives to elevating the brand’s narrative and engaging users. With its current offerings, video advertising has a lot to offer, but in the future, we can expect more interactive elements integrated into these ads and video advertising platforms for mobile like mCanvas are already working towards making that a reality.