For any brand, speaking to the hearts of customers has been fundamental for driving business since time immemorial. Storytelling is at the core of creating experiences that can evoke emotions. This remains true even in today’s time when brands are dealing with evolving customer expectations while trying to stay ahead of the curve in terms of their engagement strategies. Consumers are using their smartphones for an average of 4-5 hours every day and for many, the morning routine starts with first picking up the mobile phone. Be it scrolling through the morning news on the lock screen or gaming and browsing social media feeds in between work meetings, one thing is certain – mobile content experiences including ads are an integral part of our everyday lives. So, how can brands optimize the best of mobile tech to ensure that they are competitive and relevant in today’s dynamic, hyperconnected world? 

We believe that the answer lies in three poignant steps.

Similarly, Seagram's Royal Stag, a category leader with a global presence, leveraged mobile gaming to reach out to young Indians and trigger the brand affinity within its core target group. They created a creativity-driven campaign by effectively hitting the right place where their audiences were present – casual gaming apps, and created a memorable ad experience by leveraging an engaging format – rewarded videos. The campaign had a balanced mix of various types of video ads in a gaming environment which ensured a non-intrusive experience.

Adopting native features of mobile for engagement

The smartphone has over 50 native features, like camera, Global Positioning System (GPS), and voice detection, which if leveraged intelligently, can transform the delivered experience. Their usage has the potential to make the consumers have a higher engagement with the brand because it makes consumers feel actively involved in the experiences delivered to them. Many renowned brands have achieved this successfully and at scale.

Kia, the automobile brand, promoted a newly launched car model that supported voice commands, through artificial intelligence (AI) powered interactive ads that combined voice detection and virtual reality technologies. The mobile ads enabled users to virtually explore the interiors of the new car model by live voice commands. Voice commands such as “Hello Kia, open the driver window” from the user ‘opened’ a virtual car door, leading engaged users to immersive product pages, which drove up the product consideration. Similarly, L'Oréal Paris India, the iconic beauty brand, mirrored the retail experience online for their new lipstick collection by leveraging augmented reality and facial recognition technologies. The brand created a mobile-first ad campaign where ad units used mobile’s front camera to identify a user’s facial features. The ad then allowed the user to virtually try on and experiment with various lipstick shades from the collection.

As brands get better at building various experiences on mobile, they can also start combining their first-, second-, and third-party data signals along with Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) to deliver sequential storytelling to their customers. The learning point for brands here is that imparting an element of customization into every stage of the consumer life cycle can be crucial for mobile ad engagement – and this must be done right from the start of an ad viewing journey.

Driving activity with a contextual and meaningful call-to-action

A call-to-action (CTA) button that effectively wraps up the user journey is potentially critical for capturing the affinity, consideration, and intent built through creative storytelling. From a content perspective, an ideal CTA is often user-focused, simple, highlights benefits, creates a sense of urgency, and is customized to the platform. Visually, for creating a good CTA, the button would typically have to be optimally located, sized, and colored according to different mobile screens and consumer demographics. To effectively keep up with these extensive considerations, brands could opt to apply various technologies and tools like heatmaps and AI-powered CTAs. More importantly, brands can consider imparting their creativity through their CTA buttons – similar to Al Jalila Children’s Specialty Hospital. The brand’s ads included relevant neurological designs surrounding their CTA buttons while also diversifying their CTA mechanisms to redirect users to videos or website landing pages according to their interest levels.

While there are various measures available to develop competitive mobile ads, storytelling based on innovation, intelligence, and creativity is a must for brands looking to scale to new heights. Using mobile-first intelligence effectively allows brands to act on existing resources while innovation allows brands to push past boundaries and produce transformative ads that can catch the attention of busy consumers. The more unique the storytelling is, the more consumer mindshare the brand has.