Desperados launches a vertical video mobile campaign
A new, vertical video ad campaign is being launched for Desperadoes beer, targeting mobile consumers. Created by mobile ad tech firm YOC, it is one of the first of its kind to be run in Europe, and will be backed up by digital video and social media messages. The interstitial, portrait video comes with built-in video ad serving template (VAST) standards, ensuring measurable engagement and viewability figures.

Beer brand Desperados, part of the Brau Union brewery group, has launched a vertical video campaign aimed specifically at mobile consumers, one of the first of its kind to be run in Europe.



The campaign, developed by mobile ad tech firm YOC, centres around an understitial vertical video ads that enables a full screen display of video content in portrait format. The ad is part of a larger marketing campaign created by Brau Union and Performics which also includes additional digital video and social media elements centred on the #espassiert hashtag ("it happens" in German).



The understitial ad is part of a user-centred generation of mobile ad formats that is integrated unobtrusively within editorial content and is gradually displayed as the user scrolls down the page. In addition to the display in portrait format, the ad is integrated with the content of the page, with built-in video ad serving template (VAST) standards ensuring that the video content is correctly measured with engagement and viewability metrics.



"People tend to use their smartphones almost exclusively in the vertical mode," said Maximilian Pruscha, managing director of YOC Austria. "It was therefore important to us to provide our client with a format which would combine the moving image and the mobile element in a vertical display. Compliance with industry standards and the possibility of applying VAST tags means that the new mobile advertising format is continuing the success story of the YOU understitial ad."



The target audience for the Desperados "#espassiert" campaign is young, active individuals, so in addition to time targeting the campaign also makes use of geo-targeting segmentation. Two videos have been created which complement each other and contain a direct call to action for the user, with the campaign retargeting consumers who don't respond to one video with the second ad.



"We were aiming at a specific target group for Desperados, together with the best way to access this target group," said Amir Ehsani, brand manager for Desperados at Brau Union Österreich. "The YOC understitial vertical ad executed this strategy to an above-average level, with the result that we have retained the creative implementation for all phases of the campaign."



"The campaign and the content are only ever as good as its activation," said Konstantin Jakabb, managing director of creative agency Virtue, who helped create the campaign. "This is why here at Virtue, we begin thinking about the right format and the right platform as early as the creative stage. Because we know that more than 90 per cent of our target group is mobile, the mobile-first approach of the YOC understitials has proved the best way to access them."



Don’t forget to enter the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. The Early Bird deadline for submissions is 22 July. More details here.