These Are the Ad Formats You’ll Want to Put on Your Holiday List

Use frictionless marketing for stress-free shopping

The holiday season can be a stressful time for consumers. With the deluge of marketing messages washing over shoppers at every turn and diverse shopping lists being made and checked twice, it’s no surprise that Forrester found that 84 percent of consumers are worried about decision-making and spending on gifts.

Capturing shopper hearts and wallets during the holidays can be equally stressful for advertisers. The retail industry continues to grow, with $5.2 trillion in sales up for grabs this year. But for your holiday digital campaigns to impact shopper behavior, brands must be able to provide seamless shopping experiences across devices. The best way to do that? Innovative digital ad formats that deliver personalization and utility.

Here are four you’ll want to have on your holiday (marketing) list:

Wow customers to action with extended reality

The next generation of augmented and virtual reality ad experiences is giving consumers more choice and clarity on their holiday shopping decisions. A recent BI Intelligence report found that a whopping 75 percent of consumers now expect retailers to offer some sort of AR experience, with nearly half of shoppers using the technology to test multiple products before making a purchase.

Consumers want to be able to see your product in their environment and will spend the time interacting with your brand in extended reality to blur these worlds together. For example, Home Depot ran a holiday AR unit with Oath that allowed users to virtually place a Christmas tree in their home. The ad drove over two minutes of average engagement, helping to de-stress the tree buying experience.

Make research beautiful

Consumers turn to their mobile devices to conduct research much more often than they do to make an actual purchase. This is an excellent time to capture attention in an unexpected way with compelling brand experiences.

Brand stories take on a new life with Oath’s Mobile Tiles, an ad format that delivers messages using 360-degree images, social feeds, product images and videos post-tap. This experience delivers 540 percent more ad engagement on average. A large retailer, for instance, saw a 574 percent average conversion lift after implementing the premium takeover experience of Oath’s Mobile Moments ads.

Capture digital deal seekers directly in their mobile wallet

Making a sale during the holiday season often comes down to offering the best deal. The vast majority of Americans—81 percent in fact, per eMarketer—say that finding a great deal is on their mind throughout their shopping journey. We recently discovered that 27 percent of shoppers discover those discounts through digital advertising, so advertisers have the opportunity to deliver savings right in the palm of a shopper’s hand.

With Oath’s Mobile Wallet solution, consumers received digital coupons with time and location reminders directly to their smartphone wallets. Recently, this innovative approach helped a major department store chain lift ROAS by 40 percent.

Align with trusted content for greater impact

Not all online content is created equal. Consumers make associations about your brand messages based on the content surrounding them and trust premium content twice as much as its user-generated counterpart, according to an Oath Brand Love report. With holiday shoppers looking online for gift ideas and inspiration, it’s imperative to eliminate steps to conversion through the right environments.

For advertisers looking to offer personalized premium shopping experiences, aligning with Oath’s lifestyle galleries and endemic content using shoppable ads is a proven way to earn consumer trust.

So as you finalize your holiday marketing strategy, be sure to have ways to deliver the most engaging, premium ads. If you keep the focus on delivering a great experience, you’ll be making a stressful season more relaxing for your shoppers.

A seasoned advertising and media professional, Sarah Martinez is VP of retail at Oath, working with brands including Macy’s and Nordstrom. Her passion projects at Oath include mobile innovation, personalized and innovative ad formats, and a focus on learning and development across her team.