Unruly, News Corp and Moat Partner to Bring Viewable Vertical Video to Advertisers

• New mobile ad format launches on The Sun and The New York Post, with attention measurement from Moat
• Unruly data shows quarter of consumers watch more than 10 videos a week on their phones; 53% of people are annoyed by having to turn their phone horizontally to watch videos

LONDON & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Advertisers can now run viewable vertical video campaigns across News Corp titles thanks to a new mobile format launched at an event held at Cannes Lions today by News Corp and video ad tech company Unruly.

The outstream vertical video format is now live on The Sun and The New York Post, allowing advertisers to unlock the power of mobile video and maximize viewer attention. The mobile web format guarantees video views are viewable, as defined by the Media Ratings Council (MRC) and measured by launch partner Moat.

To help brands create best-in-class content for this emerging format, Unruly today also announced the launch of the Vertical Video Collective - a network of mobile-first content creators specialising in creating video for vertical viewing.

Mobile is increasingly the device of choice for consumers watching video online, with 45% of all global digital video views now taking place on mobile (source: eMarketer) and a quarter of consumers watching more than 10 videos a week on their phones (source: Unruly Mobile Video Survey).

Unruly’s new ad unit, compatible with both iOS and Android devices, displays ads the same way viewers consume videos on their mobile devices. Recent research has found that a third (29%) of videos are viewed vertically (Mary Meeker Internet Trends), while according to the Unruly Mobile Video Survey:

• 53% of consumers and 57% of Millennials find turning their phone horizontally to watch their video in full screen annoying;
• 34% of consumers and 43% of Millennials always or often use rotation lock to lock their phones to vertical mode;
• 74% of people say they stop watching a video ad when the sound plays automatically.

Key benefits for advertisers

• The format inserts advertisers’ vertical video content into contextually relevant articles, maximizing attention;
• The format only begins to play when the video is in-view, and can be shared or scrolled past at any time, giving users ultimate control;
• The format loads after the editorial content and only plays sound when the viewer has actively activated sound using in-board controls.

What Unruly, News Corp and Moat say

Derek Brown, head of strategy at The Sun, said: “Video is a key part of The Sun’s editorial strategy going forward, so creating advertising formats that reflect this is vital. We know that our readers engage with video advertising, but we’re also aware that they dislike intrusive and inconvenient advertising. Unruly’s vertical video format offers them polite and non-intrusive video advertising that fits seamlessly into their mobile browsing experience.”

“Ultimately, brand advertising is about creating the right storytelling experience for the consumer. TV has historically done this successfully for many marketers, but with changing consumer behavior, we need to figure out the right way to tell brand stories in digital. New formats are certainly going to be part of the formula for success and Unruly is taking a leadership role in driving forward this effort,” said Jonah Goodhart, CEO and co-founder of Moat.

Sarah Wood, co-CEO and co-founder at Unruly, said: “The landscape is changing fast and our vertical format will help brands connect more authentically, intimately and effectively with mobile audiences. The Vertical Video Collective, also launching today, will give brands access to some of the freshest video makers, creating content that’s engineered to succeed in a mobile viewing environment.”

Availability and further info

The format is available on The Sun and The New York Post exclusively for the first month. The format is available to buy programmatically through UnrulyX, the viewable video SSP, and via both Unruly and News’ direct sales teams from today.

You can see a demo here and download the Unruly Mobile Video Survey findings here.

About Unruly

Unruly is the ad tech company that gets videos seen, shared and loved across the Open Web. Positioned at the intersect of video, social, native and mobile, Unruly uses emotional audience data and user-friendly video formats to massively increase viewer engagement, brand performance and publisher revenues. With 3 out of every 4 video views now taking place outside of YouTube, 90% of Ad Age 100 brands have already used Unruly to connect with audiences at speed and scale across the Open Web.

Differentiated by a unique data set of 2 trillion video views and powered by a full tech stack, Unruly adds value by algorithmically evaluating content shareability and programmatically targeting custom audiences. Viewability is 100% guaranteed to an audience of 1.44 billion monthly unique users across mobile, tablet and desktop devices. UnrulyX, the viewable video SSP, gives buyers access to scaled audiences via user-friendly ad formats across premium media titles.

Unruly employs more than 200 people across 15 offices, with regional HQs in London, New York and Singapore. Its super power is emotional ad tech. Its secret weapon is passionate people on a mission to #DeliverWow. Unruly was acquired by News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) in September 2015.

About Moat

Moat is a New York-based SaaS analytics company focused on building products for brand advertisers and premium publishers. Their offerings include Moat Analytics, an attention measurement platform that provides analytics and insights on ad campaigns and website inventory for publishers and advertisers, and Moat Pro, a real-time ad intelligence platform for marketers, publishers, and agencies. Moat is the first company to be accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC) to measure viewable ad impressions across online display, video, and mobile (web and in-app). The company was founded by Jonah Goodhart, Noah Goodhart and Michael Walrath. The serial entrepreneurs had previously partnered to launch Right Media, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2007. For more information on Moat, please visit http://www.moat.com.

About News Corp

News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content to consumers throughout the world. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: news and information services, book publishing, digital real estate services, and cable network programming and pay-TV distribution in Australia. Headquartered in New York, the activities of News Corp are conducted primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. More information: http://www.newscorp.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160620005803/en/

Unruly
Tara Mulloy, 646-746-4357
[email protected]
or
David Waterhouse, +442071995871
[email protected]

Source: Unruly

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