• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Reddit is continuing to refine its ad stack and is now testing a customizable interactive advertising format with select advertisers.

“Interactive Ads” introduces various ad types that invite Reddit users to “play, participate, and explore directly within the ad itself,” according to the social media network's recent announcement.

Advertisers currently included in the alpha tests will see a range of interactive ad options, from “fully bespoke campaigns and creative activations” to “repeatable templates like countdowns, quizzes, dynamic reveals, and trivia,” the company writes.

To customize interactive ads, advertisers will tap into the company’s developer platform, which is responsible for games and apps designed specifically for the Reddit platform.

Paramount Pictures, Electronic Arts (EA), the Ad Council, and Red Bull are among a handful of advertisers currently testing interactive ads.

To promote its upcoming release of “The Running Man” starring actor Glen Powell, Paramount created an escape game based around the film, with an exclusive film teaser viewable to users who complete the game.

Video-game developer EA published a countdown clock below a promotional image of its new “Battlefield” game. The ad also featured a custom gaming challenge tracking Reddit users’ live progress towards a shared group mission, the company explained.

Reddit's decision to launch interactive ad units is based in the company's belief that “interactivity turns attention into action through taps, swipes, choices, and moments of discovery that build memory and meaning.”

Interactive advertising is becoming more popular across channels.

This week, Amazon also announced location-based interactive video advertising on its Prime Video service, while Samsung has launched various types of playable ad breaks via “GameBreaks” and a recent Smart TV gaming channel.

The testing of interactive ads marks Reddit's ongoing investment in an ever-expanding ad stack.

Over the past year, Reddit has expanded "Dynamic Product Ads" and updated its ads manager to appeal to smaller businesses, while launching Community Intelligence -- an AI-powered engine that powers products and insights based on data collected from user posts over the past 20 years.

Asking its 116 million daily active users to interact directly with ads, Reddit's goal is to update the relationship that redditors currently have with ads on the platform while providing advertisers with a new creative method to capture user attention.