Advertisers should open their mind to the possibilities of mobile marketing that have little to do with standard ad units or the world of digital advertising as we have come to know it.
That is the message to ad agencies from one woman leading creative industry engagement for Facebook’s Instagram.
“It’s all about being agile, being very experimental, and taking risks that seem very big but may not be,” says Kay Hsu, global Instagra lead at Facebook’s creative shop.
“And I think that’s where brands can find a lot of success – playing as much as possible and, as we say at Creative Shop, ‘Play More’.”
The opportunities to play may be more on offer than many ad professionals might realise. At Beet.TV over the years, we have heard from plenty of ad industry professionals who say the future of advertising is mobile.
But, still, at a gathering of a Creative Ambassadors Program conceived by WPP and Facebook, several speakers said that the ways in which advertisers use mobile today is still too regimented, too filled by the kinds of creative assets that were commissioned for incumbent media, like 30-second TV spots or web banner ads.
Hsu wants more. But she isn’t simply advocating a device-centric view of the mobile world. Rather, Hsu imagines a post-device strategy for a channel that is rapidly opening up to support a range of immersive experiences.
“I think AR and VR is very exciting,” she tells Beet.TV. “I am thinking about how we’re moving away from devices, necessarily, and just experience is very exciting.
“We’re moving to that world where I think it’s no longer about these devices that are defining how we consume content. I think it’s about the experiences and how the devices just enable those experiences. And I think that’s what AR and VR is about, and I think that’s very exciting for Facebook as well. I think that’s the next level of immersive experiences.”
This Beet.TV series, presented by Facebook and WPP, is titled Creativity in a Mobile First World. Please find more videos from the series here.