VivaKi announces the Tri-Ad as consumer-chosen Best Performing Ad Model

Amongst other benefits, the Tri-Ad delivers 4times more uplift in purchase intent than regular online banners

Dubai, UAE, September 2012: It is no secret that there is currently no Internet governing body in the region, causing limited accountability and a lack of agreed-upon KPIs to measure success, as well as a lack of conversation and transparency between publishers and clients. “That is the whole prerogative for the existence of the Vivaki Nerve Centre; it is our mandate to create new technologies and approaches that connect our clients with their audiences in scalable, efficient and compelling ways. The Pool is merely a testament and a reflection of that”. said Rayan Karaky, Managing Director of the Vivaki Nerve Centre.

The Pool is a VivaKi led research initiative designed to align the industry on engaging ad models of the future. The first Pool Lane in MENA was built to address the decreasing levels of engagement on display advertising. In a collaborative effort between publishers and advertisers; 18 ad models proposed by publishers, clients and technology partners, went through multiple rounds of research studies to eventually identify a single winning model that could potentially aid a struggling display industry. The first of its kind in the region, The Pool participants included ADMC, Ikoo, MSN Arabia, Net Advantage and Yahoo! Maktoob. While from marketers side, major advertisers such as General Motors, Mars, Redbull, Procter & Gamble and Samsung were the key contributors.

This week Vivaki announced “Tri-ad”, initially proposed by Net Advantage, as the winning ad model. “After several rounds of intense research, we are happy to announce that the Tri-Ad is an optimal model for an exceptional consumer engaging experience. We look forward to presenting to the market a more enriched, engaging advertising platform. The Tri-Ad is not here to replace all ad-model innovation, but to enable clients to avail an opportunity to engage with the local consumer in an approach they favor, at scale” said Rami Saad, Director of Emerging Technologies, VivaKi Nerve Center, MENA.

The announcement comes at the end of extensive research studies, with partners Yahoo Maktoob, UserVision, Millward Brown (Dynamic Logic), and YouGov Siraj as well as technology giants MediaMind. ‘’We are pleased to be among the pioneering publishers to have participated in the First Pool MENA Display Lane Project” says Hussein Freijeh of Yahoo Maktoob! “This is a unique opportunity to bring to the market highly engaging display ad-models as a measure to deal with declining CTRs in our region. We look forward to introducing the Tri-ad as part our format portfolio”.

More than 5,000 hours were spent on the Pool Project by industry experts from publishers, clients and technology partners. Qualitative research was conducted on 7 out of the 18 different ad models originally submitted by Pool Participants, across focus groups in the UAE, KSA and Egypt, covering multiple demographic age groups. The results from the Quantitative research saw the emergence of 3 leading ad-models. Before an in-depth usability analysis was conducted on the 3 ad-models where user experience experts had one on one interviews with users as they experienced the ad models in simulated environments. Further enhancements were made and the three ad models were then served to thousands of consumers in the format of a quantitative survey.

During the research process, more than 30 million ad impressions were delivered across five publishers. More than 6000 consumer online questionnaires were also completed to also measure attitudinal behavior towards the Tri-Ad.

The best performing Ad-model was then put in an in-market trial to provide a real-time live assessment as opposed to the controlled environment. The Tri-Ad emerged as the clear winner with Interaction rates indexing 209, click-through rates indexing 121 and dwell time 133 vs. best performing rich media ads available in the market.

So Jung Kim, the digital marketing manager of Samsung MENA Headquarters, one of the key participants of The Pool added “Samsung is at the forefront of innovation, encouraging new ideas and execution as part of our philosophy. The Pool MENA project is a unique opportunity to lead with this in the region. The Tri-Ad Model will revolutionize the display market in MENA and will open doors towards innovation on different fronts”.

With The Pool the Vivaki Nerve Center now adds a new innovation to their existing platforms amongst many more to come.

*The Pool is an open source project that aims to drive the industry forward. The Ad Model along with some research and development guidelines will be released to the market at large in November 2012

About The Pool
The Pool is a first of its kind industry program – developed by VivaKi – that unites the financial resources and thought leadership of its clients and a host of content providers to test and create industry standards for new advertising models. By “pooling” insights and resources, this initiative aims to identify future engagement models across a variety of emerging media platforms. Participating clients and content providers are given the opportunity to view and evaluate new advertising models and receive access to all proprietary research ahead of the marketplace.

To date, there have been 13 Pool Lanes launched across the US, China, Spain, Australia, the UK, MENA and France.

About VivaKi
The VivaKi Nerve Center is the world’s largest research and development center, dedicated to creating new technologies and approaches that connect our brands’ Clients with their audiences in scalable, efficient and compelling ways.

The Nerve Center is a resource shared, and added to, by the entire VivaKi network. It builds momentum and accelerates our brands and their Clients’ businesses by focusing on three key pillars: proprietary products and global platforms, industry-leading partnerships, thought leadership and innovation.
Website: www.vivaki.com