AdColony launches a new interactive mobile video format

Called Aurora, it offers in-video interactivity, 360-degree video, haptic rumbles, no buffering HD and high-end graphics.

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 A screen shot of an ad using AdColony's Aurora video format, with interactive choices.
 A screen shot of an ad using AdColony’s Aurora video format, with interactive choices.Mobile ad platform AdColony is out this week with a new proprietary video format for in-app ads that offers in-video interactivity, haptic effects, responsiveness to device tilting and more.

The company describes this new suite of interactive mobile video products, released under the name Aurora HD video and available for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, as “the most advanced, interactive and immersive video format in mobile.” Capabilities include:

    • Enhanced graphic display that utilizes WebGL graphic technology, in-the-cloud pre-rendering, and the display capabilities of its software development kit (SDK) to offer what AdColony says is gaming-quality imagery with custom particle effects, detailed textures and a realistic physics engine. AdColony says its SDK is used by about 22,000 active mobile apps and is present on 1.5 billion mobile devices.
    • In-video interactivity that responds to users’ touch, tapping, tilting and swiping. While firms like Adtile have been offering motion-aware mobile ads, AdColony points to tilting responsiveness — such as making a car turn left or right by tilting a smartphone’s screen — as only one of Aurora’s capabilities. Additionally, CEO Will Kassory told me, the interactivity in Aurora remains inside the video instead of branching out to a graphics screen or elsewhere. That is, a touch on the screen results in some change in the video. AdColony suggests such interaction as tapping to add an item to a cart, swiping to change video content from day to night and switching between concurrently running videos for a “choose your own experience” campaign.
    • Linked 360-degree videos, such as flipping between explorable inside and outside views of a hotel room by tapping the screen.
    • Ads that you can feel via a rumbling haptic effect, such as a car engine. A company called Immersion has pioneered this space, and AdColony says it has worked on campaigns with Immersion but developed this haptic feature on its own. Kassory points out that Immersion’s haptic effects are only available for Android devices, while AdColony’s works on iOS as well — although only about 60 percent of iOS/Android devices have the actuator necessary to generate a rumble.
    • And Aurora video is available in what AdColony describes as HD quality, without buffering — a capability that AdColony has previously offered with its Instant-Play tech.

    Several advertisers are already using the new format, with creative developed by AdColony’s in-house team.

    A campaign for Disney’s recent movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” invited viewers to go on a “treasure hunt” as a custom trailer played. When they tapped specific items on the screen, they were rewarded with exclusive video content from the movie. Here’s a play-through video of how it looked, minus the interactivity:

    In a campaign for Buffalo Wild Wings, the chain’s “Foodoo” doll drifts in and out of view in the video, and viewers need to “catch” it with their fingers — leaving “wing sauce fingerprints” on the screen.

    In the following AdColony sizzle reel, there’s a brief example near the 35-second mark when the tank leaves “bullet holes,” plus — in the actual mobile ad — there’s a haptic rumble:

    To view Aurora mobile video directly in ads, iPhone users can download the AdColony Ad Showroom in the App Store. Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” ad is available on the home screen, and the Buffalo Wild Wings and Genesis Motors ads will be available soon.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Barry Levine
Contributor
Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.

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