AOL is expanding its lineup of rich media mobile ads with a new full-page, interstitial unit aimed at attracting brand advertising dollars. The new format, called the Road Devil Interstitial, builds
on the Devil display formats AOL began extending from desktop to mobile two years ago to give marketers more alternative to the standard 300 x 50 banners.
These include units that have photo or
video galleries, store locators and are capable of running social feeds from sites like Facebook and Twitter. Among them is a format called the Pull, which was selected by the Interactive Advertising
Bureau as one of its five Rising Star Mobile units that allows a user to pull a standard banner — starting from the top or bottom of the page to full-screen display.
The promise of such
ads is that the broader canvas they provide for marketers on mobile screens translates into better performance. In that regard, AOL said the new Road Devil Interstitial has produced a 1.93%
interaction rate and an average video completion rate of 23.2%, based on initial testing with a handful brands.
A research presentation last month by eMarketer highlighted PointRoll data
showing that rich media ads in mobile in 2013 had about the same click-through rate as on the desktop, at 0.09%. But expandable and interstitial units performed better, with rates above 1% in some
cases.
AOL declined to name any advertisers testing the new format, which auto-expands from the bottom of the screen and typically displays for five seconds, although the duration can be
adjusted. Users also have the option to close the ads before they collapse back into a banner.
AOL is rolling out the interstitial unit to its owned-and-operated sites, such as The Huffington
Post and TechCrunch as well as through its network of 450 third-party sites, including Reuters, Billboard, Martha Stewart and Fast Company. Marketers also have the option to buy the
ads programmatically.
Michael Treon, vice president, platform strategy for AOL Platforms, said the company’s focus is on allowing marketers to offer a consistent ad experience regardless
of the screen size. “Our goal is to enable cross-platform interaction by default,” he said, noting that over half of AOL’s advertisers are now running cross-screen campaigns.
eMarketer estimates that display -- including banners, rich media and sponsorships -- will account for $6.7 billion of the projected $17.7 billion in U.S. mobile ad spending this year.