New ad tech company shakes up mobile with new ad formats
Playground XYZ, a new ad tech company, is aiming to drive change in the mobile ecosystem. The company is unique in that it wants to reshape ad formats, not work within the existing IAB ones. One of the ad formats that it has developed is called 'Top and Tail', this sees the banner ad move from the top to the bottom of the page when the users scrolls down. Playground XYZ believes that creating new ad formats is the best way to tackle the ad-blocking problem as it treats the underlying cause of why users employ ad-blockers rather than the symptoms.  

Playground XYZ founders: L to R: Scot Liddell, Rob Hall and Jono Mullins

There's a new ad tech company entering the fray and it's eyeing off mobile ad formats with the aim of driving change in the mobile ecosystem.

It's a lofty goal, but the founders of the new business called Playground XYZ, believe they have a shot.

All ex-Big Mobile employees, the founders consist of Rob Hall who will be CEO, formerly managing director for APAC at Big Mobile; Scot Liddell will be COO, he was previously operations director at Big Mobile; and CTO of the new venture will be Jono Mullins. He was previously tech lead at Big Mobile and is a former software engineer at NASA.

Hall told AdNews what makes their business different is while the majority of technology out there will let creative executions be built within the specified IAB formats, Playground's offering is about reshaping the ad formats themselves.

“The key for us is a single focus on just fixing the ad formats,” he said. “If you're a publisher, you're trying to sell your inventory, develop ad formats, as well as offering creative services and on top of that, sell your newspapers. If you're a creative tech company like we are, most of your business is based around 'here's an mrec, use our tools to colour the mrec in' and we're focusing on just redefining those canvases.”

Yields on mobile ad inventory are low, according to Hall, meaningful measurement is not where it should be, advertisers are uninspired by what’s available and users are fighting back with adblocking tools. So Playground aims to tackle these challenges with its new formats, Hall said.

One such format is called 'Top and Tail', which sees the ad banner change position as the user moves down the page. So the ad appears at top, as the user moves up page and the ad appears at bottom when the user moves down the page, with the hope being that because the motion is away from the ad, accidental clicks will lessen.

“Who's actually getting out of their chair and driving the change? I didn’t see anyone really doing that,” Hall said. “We've gone out and rethought the problem and come up with a different solution than anyone else has.”

The business is currently in discussions with all major publishers and ad agencies about taking their new formats to the masses. Hall revealed that the business also has a partnership with TNS that they worked with on developing a survey tool for mobile, which will capture metrics like awareness or consideration on its campaigns.

On the rise of adblocking, Hall believes that instead of trying to sue the creators of adblocking software or trying to block the blockers, he says by making ads better there may be no need for these tactics.

“Those are two possible solutions, blocking adblockers, is like closing your customer service desk because you don't like what you're hearing,” he said. “If we get the formula right, there is a triangular relationship between media owners, advertisers and users. At the moment that relationship is off kilter and it's in a state of disequilibrium.

“If we can achieve equilibrium and remove the underlying cause of adblockers rather than trying to treat the symptoms, everyone can benefit.”

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