November 2013

DoubleClick Dynamic Creative Techniques

White Paper DoubleClick Dynamic Creative Techniques

Contents Contents Building dynamic creative: a quick overview

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Best practice #1: Make the most of your data

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Best practice #2: Encourage communication between agencies

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Technique #1: Dynamic creative auto-optimizes the call-to-action based on who’s viewing the ad

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Technique #2: Dynamic creative promotes a full product line using a single template

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Technique #3: Dynamic creative helps drive global engagement with entertainment event

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Technique #4: Dynamic creative targets ads to web page context

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White Paper DoubleClick Dynamic Creative Techniques

DoubleClick dynamic creative helps agencies and advertisers show a relevant message to every viewer. This white paper describes some best practices and successful techniques our customers have used to build effective dynamic creative campaigns. Building dynamic creative: a quick overview How can an advertiser with global requirements meet the needs of campaigns in multiple countries, in multiple languages? How can you do this under tight timelines yet still ensure the best campaign performance? While dynamic creative has definitely become part of our ad vocabulary in the last few years, creating compelling strategies across all marketing funnel touch points is an area where advertisers are still experimenting. Dynamic creative can provide the answer. However, not everyone understands how to use dynamic creative in a real-world campaign. Dynamic creative makes content within an ad—text, graphics, product imagery, call to action—flexible and swappable. Rules-based logic, machine driven optimization, or a combination of both, can drive the mixing and matching of elements, and ultimately enhanced relevance and performance. Advertisers who try DoubleClick dynamic creative find that it saves a lot of production time, compared to creating countless ads by hand. Plus, it enables them to gather granular insights and respond in a fast and simple way to fine tune their messages and reach a vast audience with a single campaign. “Dynamic creative is a way to deliver the right display ad to the right customer at the right time,” says Katie Erbs, Head of DoubleClick Rich Media, Northern & Central Europe. “It automates content management to make creating ads more efficient. It injects media signals to give more relevant messages. And it can automatically optimize the creative to ensure that you always show the best message to the consumer.” At Google, we’re often asked how to maximize the strengths of dynamic creative to make ads more effective. Here are two best practices that we highly recommend.

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White Paper Best practice #1: Make the most of your data “You can use a variety of data sources with online ads,” says Dana Summers, DoubleClick Business Development, Strategy & Commercialization. “For example, with Floodlight tags you can capture up to 20 custom variables to see the path a consumer takes through your site and all their interactions. This is very valuable first-party data, and whenever possible you want to make use of that in the creative experience.” Third-party data from the industry’s leading data providers and CRM onboarding companies can be integrated with DoubleClick Bid Manager, Google’s demand-side platform (DSP). This provides seamless access to a variety of data signals to use in your dynamic creative campaigns. First-party and even offline data can also be used to help optimize a dynamic campaign. Best practice #2: Encourage communication between agencies The old-fashioned handoff of a media plan to a creative agency isn’t enough to build effective dynamic creative. Instead, an ongoing conversation between media and creative agencies is needed. “Close-knit collaboration is important, especially when agencies are just getting started with dynamic creative,” says Erbs. “Creatives need to learn what all this data means, and media needs to learn the powerful things that dynamic creative can do.” With this more collaborative approach, creative insights can drive media strategy, while the availability of real-time data can fuel creativity. Media agencies have benefitted from programmatic buying and enhanced targeting for some years. Now the technology behind dynamic creative is helping creative agencies make better use of the data available. “Efficiencies gained on the creative side allow people to spend more time on learnings and best practices, and innovating in new areas like mobile and HTML5,” notes Erbs. The rest of this white paper presents four recent customer campaigns that demonstrate how you can use dynamic creative to make your ads more powerful, and your life a bit easier. Check out other examples of campaigns built with dynamic creative at www.richmediagallery.com

Advertisers who try DoubleClick dynamic creative find it saves a lot of production time. And it enables them to quickly fine-tune their messages and reach a vast audience with a single campaign.

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White Paper

At a Glance

Technique #1: Dynamic creative auto-optimizes the call-to-action based on who’s viewing the ad

Goals • Run a branding campaign across Europe • Streamline production of ads for multiple markets

Techniques • Built dynamic creative using DoubleClick Studio

Dynamic creative provides a good way to tailor your message to the exact person viewing your ad. LexusUK did this in their recent campaign for “Amazing in Motion,” a set of creative projects that explore the complexity and beauty of motion. ZenithOptimedia in the UK, the agency that oversees media for Lexus across Europe, built the campaign around dynamic creative produced with DoubleClick Studio. The ambitious branding campaign ran in 37 markets across Europe, in six languages, with three different message tactics… all with one creative tag per ad size.

• Used one tag per ad size to create ads for 37 markets in 6 languages

The creative template featured dynamic text in different languages, plus dynamic calls-toaction auto-optimized in real-time, based on consumer clicks. This ensured that the right ad was shown to the right person, wherever they were.

• Auto-optimized calls-to-action based on consumer clicks

All this was done with no extra effort from the media team, and no incremental cost for ad serving.

Results • Media team saved time in production, trafficking and reporting • Auto-optimizing showed the right message to the right person

Client, Agency, Vertical • LexusUK • ZenithOptimedia in UK • Automobiles

Beyond making the calls-to-action work harder, the dynamic creative enabled Lexus to automatically switch in the right message. DoubleClick Studio also saved time on trafficking and reporting, which freed up the team at ZenithOptimedia to deliver further analysis and optimization.

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White Paper

At a Glance

Technique #2: Dynamic creative promotes a full product line using a single template

Goals • Scale up to deliver thousands of different ad messages • Use the same campaign for the whole product line

Techniques • Built dynamic creative using DoubleClick Studio • Reused the same template with one ad tag per size for the campaign

Nissan needed to send different messages to prospects for the company’s many vehicles, from the Compact Cargo van to the electric Leaf. Where previously it would have been near impossible to build thousands of different ads and serve each one to the right consumer, Nissan has accomplished this feat with dynamic creative. The carmaker’s creative agency, TBWA Chiat\Day LA, used DoubleClick Studio to produce dynamic creative with lots of built-in logic, yet only one ad tag per size. The dynamic creative for national buys included roll-overs, image galleries, and calls-toaction like “Learn more.” Using the template to dynamically pull in different colors, images, and text gave each model a unique treatment, and saved big on production time.

• Varied creative by user’s language, location and funnel status

Results • The right ad was shown to the right person, no matter who or where they were • Nissan gained deeper insights into their buyer behavior

Agency, Client, Vertical • TBWA Chiat\Day LA • Nissan • Automobiles

The dynamic creative for regional buys included a beauty shot with pricing and a call-toaction of “Buy now.” The offer changed with the consumer’s geo, showing Spanish text to Hispanic consumers. DoubleClick Bid Manager enabled Nissan to tweak the creative based on the consumer’s funnel position and whether they’d visited the company’s website. Integrated reporting from DoubleClick gave the media team deeper insights into buyer behavior. Dynamic creative helped Nissan show the right car with the right offer to the right person.

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White Paper

At a Glance

Technique #3: Dynamic creative helps drive global engagement with entertainment event

Goals • Drive brand engagement and interactivity • Build global audience for online event

Techniques • Built dynamic creative using DoubleClick Studio • Used one template for every region

Comedy Week was an online celebration produced live on YouTube in May 2013. To promote the event, YouTube used dynamic creative built with DoubleClick Studio. For the biggest possible splash, the campaign ran on YouTube’s masthead. The campaign featured a pan across the week’s schedule, where users could zoom in on any featured video. This innovative design used one template for multiple markets, with the text changed for languages, entertainers, and even local humor. For example, although both Americans and Brits speak English, a joke that seems screamingly funny in one country can fall flat in the other. YouTube could adjust the campaign for this factor.

• Varied text by language, lineup, and local humor

Results • 11.26% interaction rate • 514,228 hours of brand exposure • 23,562 hours of brand interaction

Agency, Client, Vertical • YouTube • ComedyWeek • Entertainment / Event Marketing

The template also allowed for last-minute changes in the lineup, always useful in event marketing. With this campaign, YouTube organizers could do a quick and easy swap to handle any sudden changes or cancellations. The campaign results were impressive, with 11.26% interaction and more than half a million hours of brand exposure for Comedy Week. Promoting this event with creative dynamic saved many hours doing manual changes, helped tune the message to each local audience, and created more cohesive branding.

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White Paper

At a Glance

Technique #4: Dynamic creative targets ads to web page context

Goals

Ranch may be America’s favorite salad dressing, but that’s not all it can do.

• Show consumers new ways to use a product

To show consumers new ways to enjoy ranch dressing, Hidden Valley used dynamic creative with contextual targeting.

• Harmonize with the user experience

The company’s media agency DDB and creative agency AKQA worked closely to build a winning campaign. Together, they made sure that the contextual signals from each web page were used to select the appropriate creative.

Techniques • Built dynamic creative using DoubleClick Studio • Used contextual signals from web pages to trigger creative

The creative template contained four categories of recipes—pasta, chicken, beef, and dip— on a vibrant ad that conveyed the brand’s wholesome image. Contextual signals from each web page triggered the appropriate recipe to appear in the template, giving consumers useful menu suggestions.

• Switched between four categories depending on page context

Results • Data-driven campaign combined media and creative agency expertise • Creative execution looks nothing like a template

Agencies, Client, Vertical • DDB for media • AKQA for creative • Hidden Valley Original Ranch • CPG / Food

This dynamic campaign performed well for two key reasons: • Smooth collaboration between agencies created a data-driven campaign in tune with the user’s intent • Great execution produced an engaging ad that no one would guess was based on a template Hidden Valley’s campaign used the flexibility of dynamic creative to save time in production and trafficking, while showcasing highly creative work. Dynamic creative can harness the best efforts of agencies, show more relevant messages to consumers, and boost campaign performance for advertisers: a win for everyone.

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White Paper

About DoubleClick Studio DoubleClick Studio is a tool used to create rich media ads that are trafficked through DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM) and DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP). It includes: Ad authoring components to help you easily build rich media ads; a fully integrated dynamic creative offering; a web app to manage your campaigns and creative, including ad preview tools in web and mobile phone environments; and a streamlined workflow that lets you push your creative straight to Google’s quality assurance review, and from there straight to DCM or DFP to be trafficked.

www.doubleclick.com/richmedia

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