#NewCampaign: Local Land Rover campaign features in Figaro Digital magazine

Global advertising technology company Exponential was briefed to showcase the versatility of Land Rover’s Discovery Sport SUV and did so by building a video-driven experience (VDX) unit, which provided users a unique experience featuring video and an extensive photo gallery. David Barnard, MD of Exponential Sub-Saharan Africa, explains that VDX units are built using Exponential’s own proprietary creative template, including brand assets like multiple videos, image galleries, 360 video, hotspots, colour selectors, maps, downloadable content and other functionalities.

The campaign’s post-expansion CTR performed four times higher than the industry benchmark and achieved an average user dwell time of almost double the benchmark.

David Barnard

Commenting on these results and the global recognition the campaign has received, Barnard says that the region is by no means behind the pack, “when it comes to developing and delivering impactful creative executions that breaks through the online clutter to drive meaningful connections for brands and their desired audience”.

Nakie Nepfumbada, digital marketing specialist SA & SSA at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), adds: “It’s a great opportunity for JLR SA and a chance to prove that SA, being an emerging market, is just as capable as other markets in delivering world class campaign performance.”

Here, Barnard and Nepfumbada provide some insight into the campaign.

What made the campaign innovative? How did it disrupt the market?
Nepfumbada: It was definitely the manner in which we managed to connect emotionally with customers through Exponential’s unique VDX offering, by housing all the info that a customer may require in one space. This approach respects the consumer's online journey and ensures a seamless and effortless online journey with the brand. Additionally, having a limited offer on the vehicle provided urgency and higher value for potential customers.

Barnard: Success was achieved by delivering an advertising experience that showcased the KSPs of Land Rover Discovery Sport in a way where customers and prospects engaged on their terms and not through forced or intrusive forms of online media. Brands reach their most valuable audience as they only pay for qualified engagements and not for the teaser impressions that are delivered.

Why is innovation important, particularly when it comes to digital?
Nepfumbada: Innovation is crucial in the digital space. Being innovative allows a brand to deliver frictionless experience in a space where competition for a consumer’s attention is increasingly cluttered. Additionally, consumer’s expectations in the digital space are quite high, especially when you are engaging with them in their personal space, i.e. mobile devices. That's why it’s important for brands to provide consumers with a delightful experience in every aspect of delivery online to ensure that the experience is unique enough to firstly get their attention, connect with them and then be allowed into their personal space by the consumer engaging with your ad unit. Not only does being innovative offer you a higher opportunity to win them over at the precise moment but it also gives brands an opportunity to gain the consumers loyalty in a way that they will engage with you should you try reach them at another stage and they will speak positively of your brand to their peers. This can only be done and maintained by constantly being innovative in our offerings, especially digital.

Barnard: It’s more important than ever as consumers are now the curators of the online media they consume. They can choose to skip, stop, pause, block, etc. Viewability and ad blocking adds to the challenges brands face to strive for more attention online. One way to overcome this challenge is by delivering creative executions that allows users to opt-into the experience on their terms and this is one of the key features of VDX. But more important is relevancy, to deliver this experience in front of the right audience at the right time.

Exponential’s audience optimisation technology performed extremely well, achieving great results from placing the ad units in front of the right audience at the right time. How did you achieve this? How does the technology work?
Barnard: Our audience models are unique to each brand and every campaign. Audiences are categorised in real-time and constantly evolving – users are added and removed from the model as they enter and exit different audience segments through their browsing activities and can be directly targeted seamlessly across display, video and mobile in a brand safe environment. Our audience technology called AERO (audience efficient real-time optimisation) allows us to leverage the depth of our contextualisation engine to understand what user interests and intentions are that drives them through the purchase funnel. Our proprietary audience modelling technology determines behavioural lift for each user, generating a score for each campaign. For each ad call, the lift score is matched against the advertiser’s own unique model to identify the users that are most likely to take action. VDX also allow brands to uncover new audience insights for future media forecasting through user interactions within the VDX expanded state as each interaction point can be measured.

What’s next?


Barnard: To create AR ad experience with Face Filter VDX ad units which has already been rolled out in the US. Users who opt into the experience can activate their webcams to engage the Face Filter. Facial feature and head-tracking technology is applied to the user's face, thus allowing the advertiser to overlay virtual objects such as glasses, make-up, hats, helmets, etc. A step-by-step guide on how the ad unit works and visual examples of the ad can be seen here.