• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 25, 2012

Mobile rich media firm Crisp Media on Tuesday announced a new suite of display ad types designed to address the most common marketer objectives in mobile campaigns. The six new units essentially repackage formats and features Crisp already offers but geared to specific advertiser goals, such as promoting an event or driving mobile commerce.
 
The focus of the specialized ad offerings, complete with fancy brand personas, is on functionality rather than introducing different ad sizes. The overall aim is to simplify the complexity associated with mobile advertising and bring more brands into the medium.
 
The ad units, created based on the most requested ad objectives from RFPs fielded by Crisp are:
 
*Maven: promotes new products, presenting highlights and “must-haves” using features like advanced product galleries and hot spots.
 
*Rainmaker: generates leads by offering content in exchange for sign-ups using social networking logins for authentication.
 
*Promoter: builds awareness for events like movie releases, concerts and conferences, incorporating tools like trailers and ticket purchasing.
 
*Sherpa: guides consumers to retail locations with click-through maps, shopping lists and related features.
 
*Narrator: uses feed-driven content, audio and video to tell a brand story.
 
*Closer: showcases a single product and includes a “buy” button and save and share features for later review.
 
For smartphones, all of the above ad types are 320 x 50 units expandable to 320 x 416. Tablet versions are 768 x 90 expandable to 768 x 600. “The various features and formats differ, but do not change the fundamental specs of the ads. These are made to be able to run easily using very standardized base templates, but with added features and functionality to define their use,” said Crisp Media CEO Jason Young.
 
One of the new ad types, for instance, could utilize the company’s Adhesion ad technology, with a banner remaining fixed in place even as someone interacts with the device and page content. The Adhesion format was selected among the winners of the IAB's Mobile Rising Stars competition for new ad units earlier this year.
 
Crisp has not yet rolled out the six new ad options to clients, so has no early results to report. But it has developed a set of measures for each, specific to its objective -- which may include time spent, video views, qualified leads or downloads.
 
The company says the average click-through rate for its mobile banner ads is 3%, far higher than miniscule rates for banners on the desktop Web and 250% higher than the mobile industry average. Crisp ads run on the mobile properties of publishers including The Wall Street Journal and CNet.