Brands, including Lexus and Peugeot, experience enhanced campaign performance after adding new sensory experiences to video ads
San Mateo and San Jose, Calif.– Opera Mediaworks, the world’s highest quality mobile advertising and marketing platform, and Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ:IMMR), the leading developer and licensor of haptic technology, are helping marketers improve campaign performance by adding touch technology to video. Mobile video advertising campaigns from major brands including Lexus, Peugeot and a leading spirits brand experienced significant boosts in click-through rates, completed views, replay rates and ad recall after adding haptic effects.
Immersion’s TouchSense® technology changes the way that brands can engage consumers. By bringing the sense of touch to mobile advertisements, brands can creatively connect with users enhancing ad recall, strengthening brand impressions and improving click-through rates. Ads that included haptic effects saw click-through rates improve between 28 and 220 percent over ads without haptics. One brand experienced a 23 percent increase in positive sentiment, while another saw replay rates increase 31 percent on mobile phones and 59 percent on tablets. One campaign more than doubled their ad recall metrics by adding haptics effects from Immersion.
“These kinds of results – even at such an early stage of this technology – speak to the power of adding feeling as a new component of video, in addition to the existing sight, sound and motion. It’s a whole new way for consumers to experience and interact with the brands they care about most,” said Mike Owen, Executive Vice President, North America Sales at Opera Mediaworks. “Haptic effects give advertisers an added dimension to play with and we believe that it will evolve their storytelling and have a significant long-term impact on the creative ad experience.”
The use of haptic technology in mobile ads has also been recognized by the advertising industry. The haptics-enhanced mobile ad campaign for Peugeot was listed as a finalist at the 2016 MOMA Awards in three categories: Best Use of Technology, Most Innovative Use of Mobile and Best Use of Video/Rich Media.
“We are honored to have been nominated for these MOMA awards,” said Cathryn Hancock, Head of Media, Peugeot UK. “When we signed on for this campaign with Immersion and Opera Mediaworks, the concept was so new, we didn’t know what to expect. But the increased engagement as evidenced by the metrics is validation that this technology can help us stand out over competing brands and pull customers closer to Peugeot.”
“Haptics has been very successful adding a more realistic sense of feel to games, but advertising is a space where the creative use of the sense of touch really shines,” said Todd Whitaker, Vice President of Marketing at Immersion. “Our TouchSense® technology allows creatives to connect brands to their prospects in a way that is only possible when visual, audio and tactile senses are fully engaged in a concept. We are incredibly excited to continue working with Opera and its top notch brand partners.”
“One of our brands was the first brand to leverage TouchSense on Opera’s platform,” said Sarah Bachman, VP, Mobile Strategy, Horizon Media. “The incredible response to our first ad enhanced with touch proved that haptic technology isn’t going away anytime soon. We’re looking forward to integrating the technology into future campaigns and exploring where else we can implement it on behalf of our clients.”
Immersion’s TouchSense technology is easily deployed in mobile apps through a simple integration that enables the media to control the actuator – the vibration motor in a mobile device. The Opera Mediaworks SDK uses TouchSense technology to manage haptic synchronization with its Instant-Play™ HD mobile video via a small library plug-in. To learn more about how to enable in-app haptic playback on the Opera Mediaworks platform, visit this link.
To learn more about tactile-enhanced video and advertising and Immersion’s TouchSense® technology visit www.immersion.com/advertising.
About Opera Mediaworks
Opera Mediaworks is one of the largest mobile advertising and marketing platforms in the world, reaching an audience of 1.2 billion consumers globally. We help clients deliver innovative brand experiences that evoke emotion and deliver real outcomes fueled by data, technology and creativity. Trusted by Fortune 500 brands and more than 85% of the world’s top grossing mobile publishers, we are an essential advertising and monetization platform to drive meaningful results on mobile. Known for our exclusive Instant-Play™ HD video technology, our global performance advertising business and our extensive ad SDK footprint in the Top 1000 apps worldwide, we are passionate about helping brands connect with consumers at scale on the most important screen in their lives. A fully-owned subsidiary of Opera ASA, Opera Mediaworks is a global organization with over 20 offices worldwide.
About Immersion (www.immersion.com)
Founded in 1993, Immersion (NASDAQ: IMMR) is the leading innovator in haptic technology. The company’s touch feedback solutions deliver a more compelling sense of the digital world. Using Immersion’s high-fidelity haptic systems, partners can transform user experiences with unique and customizable touch feedback effects; excite the senses in games and videos; restore “mechanical” feel by providing intuitive and unmistakable confirmation; may improve safety by reducing distractions while driving; provide realistic touch feedback when performing robotic medical procedures and training simulations; and expand usability when audio and visual feedback are ineffective. Immersion’s technology has been adopted in 3 billion digital devices, and provides haptics in mobile phone, automotive, gaming, medical, and consumer electronics products from world-class companies. With over 2,200 issued or pending patents in the U.S., China and other countries, Immersion helps bring the digital universe to life. Learn more at www.immersion.com.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of Immersion Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
All statements, other than the statements of historical fact, are statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to statements regarding Opera Mediaworks products, the positive effects of Immersion’s TouchSense technology in mobile advertising, the use of Immersion’s TouchSense technology by Opera Mediaworks, Lexus, Peugeot, or Horizon Media, and the use of Immersion’s TouchSense technology in mobile advertising or in mobile devices.
Immersion’s actual results might differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with Immersion’s business, which include, but are not limited to: unanticipated difficulties and challenges encountered in product development efforts (including with respect to TouchSense technology) by Immersion and its licensees; unanticipated difficulties and challenges encountered in implementation efforts by Immersion’s licensees; adverse outcomes in any future intellectual property-related litigation and the costs related thereto; the effects of the current macroeconomic climate; delay in or failure to achieve commercial demand for Immersion’s products or third party products incorporating Immersion’s technologies; and a delay in or failure to achieve the acceptance of touch feedback as a critical user experience. Many of these risks and uncertainties are beyond the control of Immersion.
For a more detailed discussion of these factors, and other factors that could cause actual results to vary materially, interested parties should review the risk factors listed in Immersion’s most current Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, both of which are on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect Immersion’s beliefs and predictions as of the date of this release. Immersion disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of financial, business, or any other developments occurring after the date of this release.
The use of the word “partner” in this press release does not mean a legal partner.
Immersion, the Immersion logo, and TouchSense, are trademarks of Immersion Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
