Interview: Yariv Erel, Co-Founder & CEO justAd, Introduces justAd Labs for Mobile Ads Production

justAd (www.justad.mobi) – the Tel Aviv-based cloud platform for the creation and distribution of rich media ads mobile and tablets – has recently announced the launch of justAd Labs, a self-serve mobile ad production platform with over 50 different mobile ad widgets, actions and triggers spanning across major mobile ad units. I spoke to Yariv Erel, justAd’s Co-Founder and CEO, about current mobile advertising challenges and how justAd plans to tackle some of them.

Otilia Otlacan: It’s the first time we present justAd to the Ad Ops Online audience – can you tell us a little about what you do?

Yariv Erel: Of course. We offer a flexible, cloud base, ad production platform called justAd Studio that allows advertisers all over the world to create amazing rich media ad units with no need for custom coding. Once the ad is ready it’s pre-certified by the majority of programmatic and mediated platforms out there. We are a true tech company and in terms of advertising features we think that we are second to none.

Otilia Otlacan: What’s wrong with today’s mobile ads?

Yariv Erel: Mobile ads are boring. It’s unfortunate, but true. A colleague of ours from Conde Nast refers to the current state of mobile ads as a similar experience to viewing a 30sec spot on TV that does not move or speaks. Serving static ads in 2014 is simply wrong. We believe that the industry is focusing around targeting and retargeting while neglecting the effect creative has on results – for both brand awareness and lead generation campaigns. Our offering makes the cost and process of serving a cool mobile ad very similar to a regular ‘flat’ ad. The basic issue we tackle is the fact that Adobe Flash is not available on mobile. This means that ads are either static or that they require coding and certifications. justAd Studio allows for amazing ads to be created with no coding and we made sure that those ads are pre-certified almost everywhere.

Otilia Otlacan: Congratulations on the recent launch of justAd Labs! What does it bring new; does it mean that justAd Studio will be retired?

Yariv Erel: Thank you! It has been a successful launch which was well accepted by our customers. But, to answer your question, it’s a ‘No’ –  justAd Labs is a feature within our justAd Studio product and not a separate product. It allows for quicker deployment time of features and in our belief offers a crucial capability for the currently shaping ‘What is a great mobile ad’ market. justAd Labs allows us to be more in-sync with our customers and focus our R&D on market needs. The combination of exposing all of the smartphone capabilities in the justAd Studio along with the ability to receive HTML or JS code is great for advertisers. Now with justAd Labs we speed the process of changes and enhancements which makes our platform the most agile in the business.

Otilia Otlacan: What ad formats can be generated through the justAd platform and in what type of environments can they be used?

Yariv Erel: justAd Studio supports the generic ad formats we all know, plus a few advanced ones:

Banner, Expandable Banner, Interstitial, Hovers, Video, Interactive Video, and  IAB Rising Stars. Bespoke ad formats can be created on the fly as well. These ads can be used on either mobile or tablet devices, in mobile web or in-app environments, depending on the brand’s need.

Otilia Otlacan: What ad and campaign level metrics are available on the justAd platform?

Yariv Erel: We track all activities in the ad, report back via dedicated hour-by-hour reports and with interactive heat maps to better visualize results. We track impressions, CTRs (and allow 3rd party ad servers to receive such data as well), unique users, engagement, Dwell time, Video quartiles and social earned media. We also allow ad creators to add pixels to any part of the ad in order to report back to 3rd party servers when tapped.

Otilia Otlacan: Are there any entry barriers – such as spend or volumes – for those looking to create rich media mobile ads with justAd?

Yariv Erel: Our business model allows you to create as many ads as you want for free. We charge based on CPMs. There is a $500 minimal spend requirements in place (for ads not for landing pages) but 99% of campaigns overshoot it so basically the barrier is very low.

Otilia Otlacan: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Yariv Erel: Mobile ads are still in the process of defining themselves – matrix, call to action, certification and other parameters. With so many activities going on at once it’s a super interesting industry for us to be involved in and we’re just excited towards what’s coming next… 🙂

About justAd
Founded in 2009, justAd develops the leading self-service advertising platform that enables advertisers to create highly engaging rich media ads for mobile and tablet devices, without the need for custom coding, server-certification nor testing.

justAd Studio, the company’s ad production platform for the creation of IAB standard and bespoke ad units, is being used by hundreds of advertising professionals around the world – from DSPs, mobile ad networks and full service agencies to SSPs, mobile publishers and web publishers.

Once created, ads are pre-certified with the majority of programmatic and mediated platforms in the world, allowing for a true self-service experience. Create once, traffic everywhere.

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, with a sales office in NYC, justAd serves clients in over 30 countries, generating hundreds of millions of ad impressions a month.
www.justad.mobi

Click below for sample justAds campaigns, or scan the QR codes to view them on your device.

Industry: Entertainment

Campaign: Anchorman 2 Movie

Anchorman 2
Industry: Automotive

Campaign: Renault Clio

Industry: Technology

Campaign: Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung-Galaxy-S4

Anchorman-2-Movie-QR New_Clio_Ad-QR Samsung Galaxy S4 QR