Switching to successful video ads with Virgin Mobile UAE

Learn how Virgin Mobile used in-stream video ads to boost brand awareness and promote the simplicity of switching to Virgin Mobile UAE.

New to the UAE market, Virgin Mobile wanted to add to its standard advertising strategy, by using in-stream video ads to raise brand awareness and build general interest within their target audience. In-stream video ads saw Virgin Mobile UAE’s ad recall rise by 7.9%, in addition to a 2% increase in purchase intent for in-stream ads and news feed ads combined.

A staple in society

Virgin has very much been a renowned brand for over half a century and a staple name in most industries, from music, travel, mobile communications and even the health and fitness industry. Since being founded in 1970 by Richard Branson, the brand has more recently endeavoured to become the first emirate digital-only mobile service. Emerging in 2017, Virgin Mobile UAE was born.

“In order to grow, you must be able to let go.”

Richard Branson

The strategy itself

To showcase how easy switching to Virgin Mobile is, the brand created a series of short videos which featured the flexible features of their plan and any potential savings. In-stream video ad placement allows marketers to place their ads within the video that is already being shown, creating the possibility of longer view durations. Virgin Mobile opted to trial this type of advertising to see whether it had any influence on their results.

Virgin Mobile then decided to run a three-cell brand lift study to compare the different ad methods and their retrospective performances. In the study were three types of ads that they wanted to compare: 1. news feed only, 2. in-stream and news feed combined, 3. in-stream only. As a result, they discovered that the combined data from video ads in in-stream placement and the Facebook newsfeed had the best performing results. This particular method was most successful for ad recall, message association and purchase intent.

In-stream works a dream

Using video ads and Facebook’s brand lift study, Virgin Mobile UAE established that in-stream video ads can boost brand awareness and promote interest within their audience. With successful results such as a 7.9% increase in ad recall, a 2% increase in message association and even an increase of 1.8% in purchase intent, it’s hard to ignore the success of in-stream video ads.

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This blog was originally published by Facebook for Business