The Strategy

Data from Nielsen Media Labs shows that 54% of users want to be rewarded after watching an ad online. Consumers prefer these “Value Exchange” ads, or rewards-based ads over traditional digital ads by a 2 to 1 margin. And while advertising is traditionally an interruptive experience, these opt-in advertisements are changing that landscape.

Some publishers who offer Value Exchange inventory include:

For example, with Google’s consumer survey app, users can take survey questions to earn Google Play credits. Pandora listeners can unlock an ad-free hour of music by watching or listening to an ad.

However, when placing a media buy, while it’s great to know that consumers prefer an opt-in ad experience, we must first know what the business implications are. How do brands fare in these situations? Does it lead to increased conversions, brand awareness, and/or purchase intent?

To answer these questions, we put Value Exchange ad units to the test for our client Goodwill to see if they would generate superior results.

We focused on our Goodwill “Donate” campaign for a three month period. We ran digital advertising using two sets of ad inventory. The first set of inventory was select traditional display and video inventory (pre-roll and banner ads), and the second set was Value Exchange display and video inventory. To keep this as controlled as possible, both sets of inventory ran during the same time period, and with the same creative.