A digital ad serving company has just come up with a novel way to encourage consumers to sit through online video ads… or rather, to encourage them to actively find and view ads as often as they’d like. In an increasingly ad-adverse environment, AdGenesis is betting on reward-seeking behavior to convince individuals to sit through video advertisements displayed on the web. In exchange for watching the video, viewers earn coupons or discounts from the advertising brand. Users can even seek out additional ads to view and collect rewards. In fact, the company is betting on this type of ad-seeking behavior to create a reliable audience for these out-of-context ads. A novel idea, but this basically amounts to video coupon-clipping. After all, aren’t coupons themselves simply advertisements with perks?
As a new way to target content and deliver ads out of context, it’s a cool approach. But from a digital+live perspective, we’re more excited by solutions that use context to a brand’s advantage. The power of an emotional, experiential connection with a user will always breed a stronger brand relationship than purely reward-based behavior. After all, coupon clippers are usually loyal to whatever brand is giving the best discount.
