Just give me the skinny:
Hangout-on-Air this Friday, 3/22 
We’ll chat with the team that built Cadillac’s interactive video ad, “The Standard of the World,” and discuss the benefits of incorporating interactive video into your digital advertising campaigns.

Input your info here and visit our G+ page @ 2:30pm ET / 11:30am PT on 3/22 and click “Join Hangout.”

I'll read the longer version:
We're all used to the idea that you watch a video from beginning to end without stopping; this concept of “linear and sequential” video hasn’t changed much since movies got started. But we also know that there are situations when you don’t want to wait until the end of a video to learn more about what you’ve just seen. 

Say you’re watching a snippet of a TV show, and they mention an actor you like; you might want to pause the video, open another browser tab, and look up the actor’s background or the movies he’s been in. Once you’re satisfied with the info, you go back to the video and keep watching. 

This is the concept behind interactive video ads, a type of ad format that is becoming a mainstay in the world of digital advertising. Rather than merely repurposing your TV commercials for smaller screens, take advantage of the inherent interactivity available on desktops, mobile phones and tablets, and allow people to dive deeper into your ads. 

With interactive in-stream ads, we can bring the best of the lean-back experience (watching TV in a full episode player) together with lean-forward active brand engagement. Interactive in-stream video ads allow you to add panels of content on top of your main video ad, presenting viewers with the option to learn more directly in the ad unit, rather than having to open that extra browser tab. 


From a business perspective, this not only gives you more space for messaging, it also means that you can buy a 15 second ad spot, yet obtain 30 or 40 seconds of user interaction for no extra cost. 

These new interactive video formats also open the door to more creativity and innovation. You now have the ability to layer on additional graphics, designs, and other creative executions on top of the original video asset to showcase the brand’s message. It’s like creating a pop-up book instead of a 2D picture book - suddenly you have many more surfaces to work with. 

The IAB recently announced their rising star formats for interactive video, a couple of which we contributed to, including “Timesync” and “Full-screen.” While the official formats are still being defined, we’ve built a demo to exemplify one of the new formats and why these ads are great for brands. 

This Friday, March 22, we’ll be hosting a hangout-on-air on our new DoubleClick Google+ page to deconstruct this demo, Cadillac’s “The Standard of the World” ad. We’ll chat with the team that built the ad and discuss the benefits of incorporating interactive video into your digital campaigns. 

To attend:
1) Input your info here 
2) Visit our G+ page at 2:30pm ET/ 11:30am PT this Friday, 3/22. 
3) Click the “Join Hangout” button to enter the hangout. 

We hope you'll be able to make it!

Posted by Adam Smoler, Head of Format Commercialization for Platform Solutions