Retargeter

Retargeting for Events and Entertainment Part II: Using Next-Generation Creative for Unheard of Engagement

Welcome to part two of our three-part series on retargeting for events and entertainment. If you missed the first post, we discussed how events and entertainment brands can leverage retargeting to drive ticket sales, maximize attendance, and stay top of mind among relevant audiences. Today we’re focusing on creative.

One of the principle benefits of display advertising online is that it allows brands to communicate visually. With display as the medium, brands can creatively drive engagement through beautiful static or rich media banner ads.

Many brands fail to properly utilize digital creative, treating it as an afterthought rather than an area worthy of investment and careful thought. By creating memorable ads and incorporating rich media, you can drive engagement, brand recall and make the most out of any retargeting campaign.

All retargeting campaigns should devote sufficient resources to develop beautiful, well-branded creative, and should adhere to banner best practices. For events and entertainment in particular, it will often make sense to incorporate rich media ad units to increase engagement.

Moving Beyond the Banner

When looking to build interactive banners, many brands look no further than flash, but there are a number of ways to incorporate rich media into ads to create an engaging experience for your audience.

Rich media banner ads can incorporate audio, video, insta-polls, or social streams, allowing people who view your ads to interact with the ad from within the ad unit, without ever leaving the page.

For example, if you are marketing the launch of a new movie, there are several ways you could incorporate rich media. In the lead-up to the premiere, rich media banners would allow you to serve highly targeted banner ads that include the movie trailer, or discussions of the movie on Facebook or Twitter. To promote upcoming concerts, venues could incorporate a piece of audio content or a music video from an upcoming performer. Video or audio ads are also a great way to engage your audience prior to an album launch.

You can also target your ads useing pre-roll video inventory, meaning your videos can get in front of your audiences any time they are watching video online—which for the average Internet user, is quite often. This February alone, American Internet users watched an average of 21.8 hours of online video.  There is a significant audience you can target with online video, and it’s an opportunity that should not be missed.

Social Audience Building

ShortTag, a new ReTargeter product, allows brands to advertise to their audience every time they click on a link. Here’s how it works: you post a shortened link on Twitter, Facebook or in an email message, and when your audience clicks on the link they see a full page ad for your brand or event. Anyone who clicks will also be tagged, and later retargeted with your ads. ShortTag can turn every social media share into an ongoing opportunity to keep your message in front of your audience.

Combining the ShortTag tool with highly interactive rich media ads provides a far-reaching advertising experience that allows your audience to engage with you all across the web.

Tune in next week for the final post in the series, where we’ll be switching gears and offering suggestions on how entertainment and events brands can monetize their valuable audiences!