Shoppable ads aren’t just a figment of futuristic cinema anymore. They’re reality. But as our Katrina Stroh explained to DigiDay, they’re still finding their footing.
By Sam Bradley
You’re likely to see more interactive ads on TV this autumn. As the critical holiday shopping season approaches, spending on interactive ads, including shoppable formats, is rising among both retail clients and non-endemic advertisers.
According to Matt Felder, vp of ad sales at streamer Fubo (strictly speaking, a vMVPD network), the number of campaigns using interactive and shoppable formats has grown fivefold and that revenue from the units had increased 217%, year-on-year.
“That fourth-quarter holiday is certainly a peak time for Fubo,” said Felder. In 2024, the business drew over 31% of its annual ad revenue, just over $110 million, from the year’s final quarter. He added: “It’s the highest [period of] demand for interactive formats.”
That investment covers shoppable units featuring QR codes, formats inviting viewers to play quickfire trivia games, as well as ads with “carousel” options or a choice of campaign creative.
Interactive and shoppable formats are still a relatively new offering in the marketing arsenal, so investment is rising from a small base. But the proliferation formats — Fubo, which debuted its first interactive formats last year, now offers six — speaks to rising interest among marketers. Rival platforms like Amazon have offered shoppable units since last September, while Comcast’s small business-focused Universal Ads launched special “Dynamic Product Ads”, a catalog-esque direct response format, in March. Nearly three-fifths (58%) of marketers polled in a Digiday survey published in June were using shoppable CTV ad units.
Matt Powell, CEO of full-service agency Moroch, told Digiday his clients had increased spending on interactive formats by 17% in the last year. Advertisers like Planet Fitness and apparel brand Tenet had recently adopted the channel, he noted.
Given their status as conversion or low-funnel formats, retailers remain the primary users of shoppable ads. “Retail is still likely using these CTV ad types the most,” said Dom Johnson, associate director, brand media at agency Collective Measures.
But brands outside that category are beginning to embrace the formats. “We’ve seen growing interest from non-retail brands in interactive or shoppable media types, as advertisers recognize that these formats also serve an upper-funnel, awareness-building role,” said Harry Browne, vp of TV at Tinuti.
“We’re seeing strong interest from sectors like automotive, travel, financial services and CPG as advertisers experiment with interactive campaigns,” said Ed Mullins, senior director, inventory and partnerships at DSP firm StackAdapt.
Brands like hotel chain Hyatt, for example, are finding a use for interactive formats as part of their broader approach to CTV. For a campaign promoting its all-inclusive destinations running autumn through December, the brand has used interactive formats that invite viewers to “click through” to the campaign video from within the home screen environment. The spots ran alongside other high-impact CTV formats, as well as digital out-of-home and creator marketing work.
“We’re focusing a lot on connected TV … the main KPI of the campaign is, you know, is brand lift and traffic to the site,” explained Ana Tomicevic, vp, global brand leader at Hyatt, who declined to share budget details.
Amazon and Roku, by way of the latter’s Walmart and Instacart links, have been the primary drivers of that broader interest, according to Chris Rigas, vp, media at agency Markacy. He estimated that on average, the formats command a 15% premium on Amazon’s Prime Video CPMs, which hover around the $25 mark.
“People are scratching the surface of what can be done with it creatively. [There’s] definitely a lot of interest at this point in terms of broadening out beyond just shopping,” Rigas said.
The formats’ capacity to catch a user’s eye, if not necessarily their wallets, is one of the factors prompting non-endemic brands to embrace them. Brand-lift studies carried out by measurement firm Happydemics showed QR codes lift purchase intent by 3% and consideration by 2% on average. Similarly, a survey of 700 viewers conducted by MediaScience for CTV adtech firm BrightLine and published last month, found interactive ads led to a 4% average increase in brand favorability.
Those results are likely due to interactive formats inviting a direct engagement from a viewer, rather than the usual glazed-eye response. A FreeWheel study published in September found 71% of viewers said interactive ads captured their attention, versus 62% of viewers regarding regular mid-roll ads.
“You’ve made a choice to spend a little bit more time with the ad,” explained David Dworin, chief product officer with FreeWheel.
Media agency Exverus, for example, has been using interactive formats for entertainment clients. For a campaign promoting a theatrical run for TV series The Chosen, it deployed shoppable CTV units featuring QR codes, and a home screen ad inviting users to engage with a trailer, on Amazon Prime and FireTV.
“The scanning of QR to buy tickets was not the primary KPI for these units. VCR on the trailer for awareness was the focus,” said Melanie Mogey, media supervisor on “The Chosen”, Exverus.
Mariana Walsh, svp of client solutions at agency Mile Marker, told Digiday that both pharmaceutical and CPG clients were now experimenting with the formats (although she declined to name specific brands, or the ad network running the ads.) Tests conducted in third quarter of this year found more success using the formats for brand awareness than for outright sales.
“They moved to interactive units last quarter and they were definitely more effective,” said Walsh. One client, an over-the-counter medication brand, registered a 6.7% lift in brand favorability in tests using interactive formats — in this case, a format that gave viewers a choice of campaign film, and another showing a QR next to a video unit — compared with a 5.54% lift from regular ads.
Meanwhile, the CPG brand saw a 12.% lift in brand awareness on carousel and trivia formats, versus a 2.25% increase for regular formats. A test aiming to use QR code ad formats to drum up direct sales for the client, however, fell flat. “The QR code saw very limited scans and zero sourced transactions,” she added.
Exverus’ work for The Chosen showed a similar split; despite the interactive units gaining 28.8 million impressions, they drew just 7,500 QR code scans. “The scans are not the most impressive numbers in relation to the impressions and completed views,” Mogey added.
Interactive ad formats often require using one’s smartphone in conjunction with the TV; it’s not always the smoothest user experience. That could explain the positive brand awareness impacts paired with mixed conversion results, according to Katrina Stroh, vp at indie agency Media+ (no relation to Mediaplus).
“The environment itself is prime – a big screen, a captive audience, and strong engagement intent, but the user experience simply isn’t there yet,” Stroh told Digiday. “Until we see real advancements in controller design or seamless voice and mobile integrations, these formats will remain more of an awareness and innovation play than a true conversion driver.”
Read the full article at DigiDay here.
