New advertising formats used in newspaper apps are seeing a surge in growth in 2014. Among the most popular formats among media houses are those which resemble full-page newspaper ads, but with interactive functionality.
When readers of Flensburger Tageblatt – or of one of the 13 other German dailies published by sh:z das medienhaus – open the newspaper on their smartphones or tablets, they are met by ads that are only published in the digital version. The media house, one of Northern Germany's largest, has found that new digital advertising products are increasingly in demand among advertisers.
Interstitials, or full-page, often interactive and clickable ads that are inserted between the pages of a digital newspaper's smartphone or tablet version, are particularly popular among advertisers.
"Some days we're forced to turn advertisers away because we've decided to not show more than three interstitials on the same day," says assistant digital manager Svenja Degner of sh:z.
The Finnish daily HBL has also been successful in selling interstitials in the digital version of the newspaper.
"Some months, interstitials beat web banner sales," says digital director Fredrik Nars of KSF Media.
"We can see that interstitials lead to greater involvement: they receive a lot more hits, and they garner much more attention than web banners. Interstitials are generating new business for us," Nars explains.
Visiolink, which works with more than 700 European newspapers in the area of publishing for computers, smartphones and tablets, is seeing increasing interest among media houses in the new digital advertising formats. To date, the company has delivered 219 interstitial modules for newspaper apps, and 50 more are in the works for the coming months.
"Extra advertising in the digital newspaper represents huge potential, but it is also potential that is untapped by many media houses. There is currently increasing demand for solutions that can handle interstitials and other ad types, and some media houses are truly realising the potential of the new possibilities – not least because digital newspapers are an important part of the media houses' overall business model, as the number of digital readers continues to rise sharply," explains Visiolink COO Kenneth Boll.
He believes the breakthrough for interstitials is primarily due to the fact that the format is integrated into the main product, and they are experienced as natural elements of the digital newspaper.
"One key strength lies in the fact that interstitials resemble ads which readers are already used to seeing. At the same time, interstitials provide a much better CTR than banner ads," Boll says.
Boll expects new digital advertising formats, with interstitials leading the way, to undergo significant development in 2014.
"We're working with tools that make it possible to target the ads directly at the individual reader. This will be based on data from the media house's subscription systems and on the readers' behaviour in using the newspaper, which will enable the advertisers' messages to be targeted at the readers' interests and habits," says Boll.
