And XappMedia has announced a partnership this week with NPR to bring audio ads in native form, essentially creating a brand new form of mobile advertising.

BIA/Kelsey Senior Analysts Mike Boland and Abid Chaudhry were back again this week to talk about these two topics today on the latest in our Analyst Roundtable series.

Chaudhry started the discussion with Facebook’s $2 billion purchase of the virtual reality gaming company Oculus VR. “We’re going to be in a post mobile world in a few years from now and Facebook is putting their bets down that virtual reality will be the next big thing,” Chaudhry said.

Chaudhry said he expects Oculus VR will continue as a gaming system and more of a “laboratory purchase” by Facebook. Mike chimed in and said,” This is a platform play. They want to own the physical touch-point with the consumer.”

Boland began his discussion of XappMedia’s new mobile ad unit with a video demonstration of how the new ad format will interface with consumers. The unit is expected to debut this week on the NPR platform. “I think this is going to represent a lot of the innovation we’re going to see just not audio ads but just in the general thinking of native advertising that’s more resident to the use case of mobile advertising.” Boland believes this should give advertisers a clearer picture on the ROI. For a more in-depth analysis, take a look at Mike’s recent blog post here.

Check out today’s analyst roundtable below:

The post Analyst Roundtable: XappMedia Introduces New Ad Format and Facebook’s Buy into a Virtual Future appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

And XappMedia has announced a partnership this week with NPR to bring audio ads in native form, essentially creating a brand new form of mobile advertising.

BIA/Kelsey Senior Analysts Mike Boland and Abid Chaudhry were back again this week to talk about these two topics today on the latest in our Analyst Roundtable series.

Chaudhry started the discussion with Facebook’s $2 billion purchase of the virtual reality gaming company Oculus VR. “We’re going to be in a post mobile world in a few years from now and Facebook is putting their bets down that virtual reality will be the next big thing,” Chaudhry said.

Chaudhry said he expects Oculus VR will continue as a gaming system and more of a “laboratory purchase” by Facebook. Mike chimed in and said,” This is a platform play. They want to own the physical touch-point with the consumer.”

Boland began his discussion of XappMedia’s new mobile ad unit with a video demonstration of how the new ad format will interface with consumers. The unit is expected to debut this week on the NPR platform. “I think this is going to represent a lot of the innovation we’re going to see just not audio ads but just in the general thinking of native advertising that’s more resident to the use case of mobile advertising.” Boland believes this should give advertisers a clearer picture on the ROI. For a more in-depth analysis, take a look at Mike’s recent blog post here.

Check out today’s analyst roundtable below:

The post Analyst Roundtable: XappMedia Introduces New Ad Format and Facebook's Buy into a Virtual Future appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

XappMedia might be a company you haven’t heard of, but that could change soon. It has spent the past few years pioneering a new ad format that prompts users to engage through voice commands. It’s well suited for lots of hands free moments (think drive time or jogging).

I’ve been talking to the company for the past year about its technology, and this week it debuts publicly. Known as Interactive Audio Ads (demo here), they’ll appear within the growing inventory sources of streaming apps that serve audio ads in addition to standard display.

The company also announced today that its launch partner is NPR. The new ad units will accompany audio spots within the NPR News app, and they’re already available for NPR advertisers that distribute audio ads through the app. Expect to see (or hear) it there, and likely other streaming apps soon.

This should resonate with advertisers in addition to being a fitting user experience. There will be a clearer ROI proposition for trackable and conversion-oriented actions that these voice commands drive (i.e., “download app”). In fact, NPR is already seeing $20 CPMs for some of these ads.

We’re bullish on the technology for that and lots of other reasons. One thing I like about it is that unlike the “feature creep” that has defined the world of mobile ads (slapping banner ads on a smaller screen), it takes a more native approach to the mobile form factor and specific use case.

This week’s announcement is also well timed for a white paper we have launching next week on audio ads. Until then, you can see our analyst round table this week. The video embedded below jumps right to the part where I explain and demo Xapp ads. Stay tuned for more.

The post Talk Back to Your Mobile Ad: XappMedia’s New Ad Unit appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

XappMedia might be a company you haven’t heard of, but that could change soon. It has spent the past few years pioneering a new ad format that prompts users to engage through voice commands. It’s well suited for lots of hands free moments (think drive time or jogging).

I’ve been talking to the company for the past year about its technology, and this week it debuts publicly. Known as Interactive Audio Ads (demo here), they’ll appear within the growing inventory sources of streaming apps that serve audio ads in addition to standard display.

The company also announced today that its launch partner is NPR. The new ad units will accompany audio spots within the NPR News app, and they’re already available for NPR advertisers that distribute audio ads through the app. Expect to see (or hear) it there, and likely other streaming apps soon.

This should resonate with advertisers in addition to being a fitting user experience. There will be a clearer ROI proposition for trackable and conversion-oriented actions that these voice commands drive (i.e., “download app”). In fact, NPR is already seeing $20 CPMs for some of these ads.

We’re bullish on the technology for that and lots of other reasons. One thing I like about it is that unlike the “feature creep” that has defined the world of mobile ads (slapping banner ads on a smaller screen), it takes a more native approach to the mobile form factor and specific use case.

This week’s announcement is also well timed for a white paper we have launching next week on audio ads. Until then, you can see our analyst round table this week. The video embedded below jumps right to the part where I explain and demo Xapp ads. Stay tuned for more.

The post Talk Back to Your Mobile Ad: XappMedia's New Ad Unit appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.