Format updates, new audience segments, and an advertiser success story to close out the year

Developments in Q4 have laid the groundwork for 2025, while enabling enhanced advertising opportunities for our clients. As we close out the year, we have focused on improvements to create a better user and advertiser experience across our games. We are always looking for ways to improve the outcomes for our ads, and we will continue to invest in this space in the future. This update focuses on our new targeting offering as well as improvements we’ve made to the advertising creative format to create a more seamless experience between our games and the ad experiences within them. While it is still too early to share specific data as to how these new features are driving results for our advertisers, we welcome you to learn with us as we continue to develop our ads platform.

Top Story: King Audiences expands advertising options with first-party audience targeting

A major reason advertisers choose to advertise anywhere is the unique ad offering they are provided. While we have invested heavily in developing formats that fit within the gaming context, we knew we wanted to provide more options when targeting players to ensure that your brand reaches the most relevant audience.

• King Audiences’ are first-party data segments which leverage player-reported interests and are built with ad engagement insights.

• Non-ad engagement audiences are built through consent-based data collection, which is survey driven and opt-in, to build trust with our players.

• Our audiences can be combined with and/or targeting logic in order to drive more specific subsegments like young parents, or Gen Z tech enthusiasts, or more broad audiences like frequent shoppers or frequent diners.

King Audiences are available for advertisers working with us directly. Reach out to your team at Activision Blizzard Media for more information and to start leveraging these segments in your next buy. 

Changing our ad experience for an even better gaming fit 

We are currently testing a new ad template across formats that seamlessly fits our various games theming and elevates the advertiser. These updates will better connect brand association to the creative players who are watching. Some highlights of the improvements we’ve made include:

• Expanded Advertiser Branding: We now enable advertisers to include their logo, brand name and some copy at the top of the ad.

• Timer: We’ve moved the ad timer up to provide clear indication of ad progress toward the granted reward, as well as help players understand the ad’s total runtime.

• Persistent CTA: We’ve made the ad CTA more visible at the bottom of the ad. Additionally, we’ve included more CTA options for advertisers to use.

• Game-Aligned UI: The colors and font across the ads are now aligned with the branding of our games, which creates a cleaner ad experience for both players and advertisers.

While we do not have any specific data to share yet as to the performance improvements of this new template, we are seeing positive results early for advertisers that are testing. In audience sentiment surveying, players have overwhelmingly preferred the new experience. Results have shown highly positive sentiment to the new game-aligned UI, expanded advertiser branding and updated CTA. 

If you want to take advantage of this update, reach out to your account team for more information.

Driving Brand Impact for Arla Anchor

Arla is known for being the 5th largest dairy producer in the world. This year, they partnered with Activision Blizzard Media to drive Brand Awareness of their Anchor butter product. They leveraged our playable format to engage with potential customers who were identified as being the household shoppers within King’s player-base. 

This partnership resulted in significant brand resonance by engaging mobile users and reinforcing Anchor’s presence in the United Kingdom.

With this campaign, Arla saw a 30%+ lift in Ad Recall, 6%+ increase in awareness and a 7%+ increase in consideration of their brand. Additionally they were able to do this all with a 99.8% viewability rate, and a 97% video completion rate. 

You can read more about the campaign here and find more case studies from other brands. 

Q3 2024 Product Updates

This quarterly product update is crafted with our clients at the forefront, sharing the latest innovations designed to elevate your brand’s connection with highly engaged gaming audiences. Discover what new experiences are coming soon to help you achieve even greater success.

This quarter, our clients have achieved remarkable success using our Interactive Video and Playables formats. These powerful tools offer your brand engaging and effective ways to connect with players, driving impactful results across your campaigns. These highly creative formats allow advertisers to engage with players in a way that is both familiar and fun. 

Top Stories

Interactive Video and Playables Drive Advertiser Success

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, capturing and sustaining audience attention has become a critical focus for brand advertisers. We understand the challenge of capturing and sustaining audience attention in today's digital landscape. That’s why we’ve developed compelling Interactive Ad experiences that transform passive viewers into active participants, delivering measurable results that help your brand stand out. This approach to Interactive Ads is built on two core pillars:

• Player-First Strategy: Our ads are designed with the player's experience in mind, ensuring that your brand goals are met while delivering a seamless and enjoyable experience for the audience.

• Innovative Storytelling: Interactive ads transform brand messaging into engaging experiences, making them more memorable and deepening the connection between the brand and the consumer.

The product suite includes Playables and Interactive Video. Playables are standalone gamified ads that drive brand lift by fostering authentic interactions between players and advertisers. Proven to drive upper-funnel awareness, Playables offer unique opportunities to gamify key features of a brand or product. Research indicates that 80% of players find Playable experiences enjoyable, with 84% preferring them to standard video ads (Activision Blizzard Media, Internal Usability Study, April 2023). And the results we are seeing reflect this benefit for advertisers as well. We’ve found that when advertisers combine Interactive Video and Playables, they see 1.8x lift in ad recall (Activision Blizzard Media, Brand Survey Lite Meta-Analysis with Statistically Significant Findings (2023)).  

Under the Interactive Video category, three core formats are available, each designed to maximize storytelling and brand messaging:

• Video Explorer: Encourages users to explore a brand in-depth, highlighting different features and benefits through tappable sections.

• Tappable Video: Integrates interactive elements within the video itself, inviting users to actively engage with the ad.

• Video Selector: Allows users to choose content most relevant to them, enhancing the personalization of the ad experience.

New Sponsored Moments Package: Elevate Your Brand to Hero Status

Our new Sponsored Moments package provides your brand with a unique opportunity to be at the heart of the gaming experience, reaching millions of highly engaged players during key gameplay moments. This exclusive package is designed to create memorable connections by seamlessly integrating the brand into various in-game touchpoints:

• Branded In-Game Gifts: Provide players with valuable in-game boosters and prizes, associating the brand with positive gaming experiences.

• Engaging Ad Formats: Choose from industry-leading Rewarded Video, Playables, and Interactive Video formats, all designed to enhance engagement through user-initiated, rewarded, and interactive experiences.

• Prime Placement: Capture player attention from the first ad impression of the day, ensuring the brand stands out and remains top-of-mind.

Sponsored Moments empowers your brand to seamlessly integrate into the iconic Candy Crush Saga world, connecting with a highly receptive audience and fostering lasting positive associations. As we learn more about how this experience—now in beta—performs, we’ll be sure to share more details.

Exclusive Opportunity:

• Activate in-game experiences that position the brand at the forefront of the world’s most popular mobile game.

• Drive deeper player engagement, creating positive associations between the brand and the gaming audience.

Celebrating Client Success

Case Study: Maybelline Achieves Success with Interactive Video

Maybelline New York's recent campaign for their Lifter Gloss Candy Drop collection demonstrates the impact of combining interactive ads with standard video to drive significant results. The campaign resulted in a 552% increase in website traffic, reaching 100,000 daily visitors, alongside substantial lifts in ad recall (23%), awareness (14%), and consideration (4%). 

This comprehensive advertising approach effectively drove both upper and mid-funnel success, leading to higher engagement and interest from audiences.

Wrap Up

As we continue to innovate and enhance our product offerings, we remain dedicated to helping you achieve your brand's goals with cutting-edge advertising solutions. Keep an eye out for future product updates every quarter, where we’ll unveil new products and solutions designed with your success in mind. We look forward to partnering with you in this journey, and as always we welcome your feedback—please share your thoughts and feedback with your Account Executive, as your insights help shape the future of Activision Blizzard Media's offerings. Reach out to your team as well if you want to take advantage of any of the products talked about above.