The SpaceStation has officially launched Social Display, a product developed by technology partner Polar to drive brand engagement. In South Africa, it appears exclusively alongside trusted content published by 24.com, assuring brand safety.
“We’re really thrilled about this product”, says The SpaceStation’s sales director, Craig Nicholson. “What we’ve been seeing over the last six months is very powerful, in terms of performance and metrics, and we look forward to introducing it to clients.”
Social Display allows brands to take existing creative from their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts and distribute these as 300×250 display ad inventory across the 24.com network.
At its launch, Polar’s CEO, Kunal Gupta, introduced the audience to Social Display, putting the product in context against the backdrop of the web’s evolution. Gupta believes we are entering the era of the trusted web, saying, “With trust in news media currently at 65 points compared to social media’s 42 (Edelman), people are paying for reliable content. But brands haven’t yet made it into the trusted web. Enter Social Display.”
Social Display uses creatives from social media as advertisements across the 24.com network. The format is responsive to smartphone screen size, and allows for interaction such as liking and commenting.
Over the last six months, The SpaceStation has launched more than 110 Social Display campaigns in South Africa, with remarkable results:
- 12.1 seconds average in-view time for Social Display (verified/measured by Moat), higher than Polar’s global benchmark (9 seconds), and Facebook feed environments (1.7 seconds).
- Social Display scored a 1.3% overall CTR. Again, this is higher than Polar’s global benchmark (1.0% CTR), and standard display.
- Social Display drives brand lift. For example, a global travel brand saw a 45% increase in brand awareness, 43% increase in brand engagement and 27% increase in purchase intent using this format. Globally, more than 700 different brands have used the format over the past three months alone.
Using creatives that are already completed and approved means high quality ads, with fewer delays.
User engagement and attention increase, as users are reading rather than rapidly scrolling through their feed.
Social Display thus helps brands avoid “feed fatigue” and “banner blindness”.
The format is now available to select clients to transact on programmatic workflows in a self-serve capacity.
