Driven by a combination of marketer uptake and viewer expectations, the use of interactive television ads is surging at Hulu. So much so that \u201cI feel like there\u2019s a bit of an inflection point for interactive ads in TV,\u201d says SVP of Advertising & Sales Peter Naylor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working with people like BrightLine<\/a> for a long, long time, Innovid<\/a>, true[X] and others,\u201d Naylor says in this interview with Beet.TV at the Advanced Advertising Summit<\/a>. \u201cIt think we\u2019re at an inflection point because my volume of orders for all of last year I\u2019ve already booked year to date. That\u2019s two hundred, three hundred percent growth. Very smart growth.\u201d<\/p>\n A few weeks ago, Hulu served video trailers for the Warner Bros and MGM movie \u201cTomb Raider\u201d that were interactive ads to the extent that viewers could order tickets to a nearby theatre from Fandango. As Variety reports<\/a>, part of the strategy was to lessen the time between people seeing a movie trailer and actually going to a theatre.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think as people, viewers in particular, continue to expect that they can interact with TV ads, you\u2019ll see marketers take advantage of the opportunity,\u201d says Naylor. \u201cIt\u2019s a real opportunity to go beyond a conventional fifteen or thirty and I don\u2019t see why it shouldn\u2019t continue to go up and to the right.\u201d<\/p>\n Such interactive spots are priced at a premium \u201cbecause the results are superior in terms of brand awareness and purchase intent and even just at the most basic level, time spent with the ad. These ads just get more attention and I think expectations are going to just continue to increase for the viewer.\u201d<\/p>\n Interactive ads typically begin with a conventional spot and some kind of call to action. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s an overlay or some kind of creative element to alert the viewer that they can interact. Once they interact it can be a video library, it could be a photo library, or a transactional unit. There\u2019s a whole hoist of opportunities once you get people to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a \u201cmodest call to action that lets people know pick up your remote, pick up your phone you can play around with this and learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n Naylor likens growing consumer engagement with interactive ads to the advent of touch screens and peoples\u2019 evolved expectations to encounter touch screens just about everywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cI think sooner or later people just expect, of course I should be able to transact with a set. It\u2019s IP TV. It\u2019s a connected environment.\u201d<\/p>\n