More and more marketers today are shifting from the “pull” to the “push” strategy where engagement with users is offered on the publisher site, within the banner. For 2009, it is evident that social has become an element applied to almost all brands and campaign strategies, but is it better for a brand to mix social elements directly into display ads to drive performance?

Here is a look at some recent campaigns that pushed social integration with display ads to a new level.

Talkback: Real Engagement in Real Time

Talkback is an ad format that features real-time two-way conversation between the consumer and the brand. A great example of this is the real-time social and display campaign featuring Talkback Ads launched by Intel last month. In its fourth Talkback Ad execution since October 2008, Intel expanded its campaign globally and aimed to connect the IT community with Intel experts. Through the Talkback Ad format, Intel technology experts participated in real-time dialogue with consumers, product reps and decision makers to establish an additional connection to the brand and its products.

Kelly Kernaghan, SVP and group account director at MRM, explained that this was also a way for Intel to reach an audience that depends on peer advice. “For IT managers, trust comes from dialogue with peers. Technical pros like to speak with people who speak the same language.”
Using Talkback, brands can build relationships by engaging users where they are, without the need to click-thru to a separate site. Talkback ads are ideal for brands interested in building or maintaining a community, product launches and can help push users down the purchase cycle.

Twitter Integration
VW pushed the social element to a whole new level when it launched a Twitter-integrated campaign where users typed in their Twitter account ID and watched as their twitter results were analyzed to determine the VW that best fits their personality, all within the banner.

Sharing with Messenger

Another ‘social’ ad format is the ‘ad sharing’ feature now available for messenger ad units. Both BMW and Universal Pictures (for the Bruno campaign) recently tapped into the ad sharing feature on MSN messenger, allowing users within seconds, to share and discuss the ad or movie trailer with buddies and contacts all without having to leave the banner.

In late August, eMarketer reported that consumers who chat with friends using AOL, MSN, or Yahoo messenger services spend more time looking at instant messenger ads than almost any other Web display spot (aside from the email category). The average messenger user spends almost 74 seconds on every advertisement rolled over while talking to friends.

Webcam-in-Banner + Social = Ultimate Brand Engagement
In light of the January 2009 Presidential Inauguration, Pepsi launched its Dear Mr. President campaign where users uploaded live video messages to Barack Obama without leaving the banner. Results from the Pepsi Refresh Everything campaign, where a direct line between the users and the Oval Office was created, confirms how integrating social media within the banner increased campaign performance and interaction. By harnessing video content with social, this campaign showed impressive results. More than 6 million people visited the brand’s Facebook page called “Refresh Everything” and nearly 85% were from the target audience of Millennials. Additionally, more than 175,000 became fans of “Refresh Everything” on Facebook and the webcam in Banner unit helped garner over 700 total video submissions that generated 4 million views and 100,000 text submissions to YouTube. More than that, the Pepsi campaign became the #1 sponsored YouTube page. For the full case study click here

So, to answer the question, is it better for a brand to mix social elements directly into display ads to drive performance? Yes, absolutely.

Hava Kelman Eisenstein | Director of Product Planning