• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, February 5, 2013

Advertisers that use interactive elements in their pre-roll benefit from higher engagement and completion rates, compared to advertisers who use simpler unadorned pre-roll, says a new report from Innovid. And interactive ads get viewers to hang around longer.  

In a press release, Zvika Netter, CEO of Innovid, attributed that additional time spent to “adding a native element like interactivity to pre-roll campaigns.”

The company’s new report says interactive campaigns extended the time spent with a 30 second ad by an additional 21.57 seconds, on average.

Innovid’s Interactive Video Advertising Benchmarks: Q4 2012 says marketers running simple pre-roll saw an average 1.21% engagement rate and a 69.59% completion rate. Campaigns using interactive elements saw a 3.09% engagement rate, and a 71.58% completion rate. The report is is available for download at http://www.innovid.com/insights/benchmarks/.

Innovid’s research is based on the company’s analysis of 900 campaigns seen in the fourth quarter of 2012, utilizing Ad Server, and monitoring more than 1,000 publishers and networks worldwide. Innovid’s study focused on its own iRoll Apps and iRoll Expand formats.  

Some highlights:

• 15 second slots saw the highest completion rate at 74.41%, versus 30 second slots that delivered a 68.91%;
• Interactive campaigns recorded a 44.54% awareness rate, while pre-roll displayed only a 17.57% ;
• iRoll Expand delivered an additional 27.37 seconds in time earned on average;
• iRoll Expand units commanded the highest engagement rate across the board, with the Entertainment category garnering rates as high as 6.7%, followed by pharmaceuticals at 6.08%, and consumer packaged goods at 4.02%; 
• The beauty industry has the best completion rates, with both iRoll Expand and Apps campaign showing an 85.71% and 85.67% rate respectively.