Conversationalists represent about 33 percent of online US adult consumers. According to the hierarchy, Conversationalists are people who update their status by conversing on social media websites and/or post updates on Twitter at least once a week.

The new Share option in the Mixpo Player’s INFO menu takes advantage of the emergence of Conversationalists by making it easy for an Xspot to be passed on.

Selecting Share opens a Share with Friends window. Viewers click an icon to access their Facebook, Twitter, or dozens of other social media accounts where a link to the Xspot landing page is automatically available to be passed on.

Viewers easily share an Xspot on Facebook, Twitter, or dozens of other sites

Play the following Xspot to try the option for yourself. When the Xspot starts playing, place your cursor over INFO and then click Share.

Note This is a demo Xspot only. It did not run in this specific format during the actual Scott Brown for U.S. Senate campaign.

More information

Mixpo account holders: Find instructions for adding the Share option to the INFO menu by visiting the Client Resources page, and then searching for facebook or twitter.

Learn more about dyamic video advertising for politics.

For example:

• A national auto dealer runs an video ad campaign in several local online publications. After a general introduction to the newest model, the Xspot automatically sends viewers, based on their IP addesses, to Xspots created by their local dealers.
• A candidate in a tight congressional race wants to clearly distinguish her policies from those of her opponent. At the end of a brief introductory Xspot, she directs voters to 3 detailed Xspots that describe her approaches to the economy, health care, and national security.

In both cases, the transition from general to detailed Xspot occurs seamlessly within the same Player.

Telescoping options similar to these are available now using the new Redirect overlay action in the Mixpo platform.

Click the Economic Crisis overlay at the end of this Scott Brown campaign demo Xspot to experience a simple example of telescoping for yourself.

Note This telescoping example is for demo purposes only and was not used in an actual Scott Brown campaign ad.

If you’ve used overlays before to link to webpages or open lead capture forms, you’re already familiar with the basic process for adding redirect actions to Xspots.

More information

Learn more about dyamic video advertising for politics.

Mixpo account holders: Find instructions for setting up telescoping by visiting the Client Resources page, and then searching for redirect.

But polls can be expensive and time consuming to conduct.

With the most recent release of the Mixpo dynamic video advertising platform, you can now incorporate polls into the Xspots you run on the Internet.

Including polls in Xspots offers dual benefits. Polls not only provide advertisers with valuable feedback about where viewers stand. They also increase the likelihood of engagement by providing viewers with a way to express their opinions.

Tip While this example focuses on a political Xspot, advertisers in retail and other verticals will also benefit from the data polls provide.

Note This poll is for demonstration purposes only and does not reflect an actual poll that ran during the Scott Brown campaign.

Respond to the poll in the example Xspot to get immediate feedback on all poll responses to date.

Advertisers can update existing polls or add new ones at any time during an Xspot campaign. Changes go live immediately everywhere the Xspot is published.

In addition, advertisers can generate poll reports in Microsoft^® Excel^® format, which provide response data by date range or from the time the Xspot went live to the current day.

More information

Learn more about Mixpo’s dynamic video solution for politics.

Mixpo account holders can learn more by visiting the Client Resources page, and then searching for survey.

Now, many large and small businesses and most political campaigns maintain an active presence on at least some of the major social media sites.

You can easily and effectively promote an advertiser’s social media presence from within an Xspot using the familiar website icons that virtually all viewers instantly recognize.

For example, take a look at the use of social media icons in the following Scott Brown demonstration Xspot.

Place your cursor over the Xspot as its playing and expand the INFO menu, where you can include other built-in social networking calls to action. This demo Xspot includes Send to a Friend, which encourages viral sharing among acquaintances.

In the Mixpo platform, we’ve included all of the popular social media icons in our stock media library. With just a couple of clicks, you can add a Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or other icon to an Xspot as an overlay, and then associate the overlay with the URL for the appropriate feed, webpage, or video.

With a couple of clicks, add a social media icon to an Xspot as an overlay

And, as the Scott Brown demo Xspot illustrates, you can draw viewers’ attention to the icons using color and a glow effect.

More information

Learn more about dynamic video advertising for politics.

Mixpo account holders can learn more by visiting the Client Resources page, and then searching for social media.

For example, a retail outlet or restaurant might link viewers to a website where they can print a coupon. Or, a political campaign might encourage voters to visit a webpage and print a “Candidate on the Issues” handout.

The new Print overlay action in the Mixpo platform takes the effort out of the print call to action.

Clicking a coupon image overlay in an Xspot

One click on an inviting image overlay opens the printable image at its actual size along with a Print dialog box.

Tip To encourage viewers to click, you can place “Click to Print!” text on top of the image without interfering with the print action.

After clicking the overlay, viewers can immediately print the coupon at its original size

No webpages to visit. No browser window printing confusion to sort out. Just a friendly, familiar OK button.

More information

Mixpo account holders can learn more by visiting the Client Resources page, and then searching for print.

You have two localization opportunities:

• Turn on the Spanish language Player controls.
• Use Spanish for the INFO menu calls to action.

Turn on the Spanish language Player controls

When you turn on Spanish controls, the Player buttons, close box, and some INFO menu options automatically appear in Spanish.

The following thumbnail shows the localized Roll Over to Play button.

Roll Over to Play button with Spanish Player turned on

Use Spanish for INFO menu calls to action

You can customize the Website Link and Contact Us INFO menu calls to action by typing them in Spanish.

The text in the first two INFO menu options in the following thumbnail were typed in Spanish. The bottom 3 sharing options (which you can choose to show or hide) are localized automatically when you turn on the Spanish-language Player.

Spanish language INFO menu options

The text fields for the custom calls to action support all of the special Spanish characters.

More information

Mixpo account holders can learn more by visiting Client Resources, and then searching for spanish.

For example, thumbnail image A may generate significantly more views than thumbnail image B. Or, call to action C may result in significantly more clicks than call to action D.

But how does an advertiser know which creative will produce better results? And, in a one-shot media buy, how can an advertiser learn what works best and act on it?

In the Mixpo platform, you can now resolve all of these problems in the course of a normal Xspot campaign by taking 3 easy steps:

• Try different creative.
• Compare performance.
• Act on performance results.

Try different creative

Unless an advertiser has two TV spots to run online, switching creative may seem overwhelming. You can, however, make some quick and easy changes that may significantly affect an Xspot’s performance.

Just two clicks creates a duplicate version of any Xspot. By opening the new version in the Studio, you can replace an overlay or INFO menu call to action, upload a new thumbnail image, and more.

Click Copy to duplicate an Xspot or auto-generate new thumbnail images

Tip Clicking Copy also gives you the option of automatically generating Xspot versions with different thumbnail images.

More information

Mixpo account holders can learn more by visiting Client Resources, and then searching for duplicate or thumbnail images.

Compare performance

To see which creative execution performs best, set up ad rotation.

Ad rotation means rotating different Xspots randomly through the same Player to see which generates the most engagement and exposure.

After you create the Xspot versions you want to compare, setting up ad rotation is as simple as selecting a few check boxes.

Two versions of the Xspot will rotate randomly through the same Player

You can track results for the different versions as you always do in the Dashboard or through weekly and monthly PDF reports.

More information

Mixpo account holders can learn more by visiting Client Resources, and then searching for ad rotation.

Act on the performance results

The good news is that you don’t really have to act on the performance results. If you enable auto-optimization, the Mixpo platform does the acting for you.

All you have to do is set the number of impressions after which you want optimization to occur, select a performance metric (for example, active view rate or clickthrough rate), and then sit back and relax.

When the impression limit is reached, the platform automatically runs the best-performing ad and stops running poorer performers.

More information

Mixpo account holders can learn more by visiting the Improve Xspot Performance page, and then searching for auto-optimize.

Does that mean that video content originally designed for TV won’t work well on the web? Of course not. Fresh, imaginative content interests consumers regardless of the medium they use to view it.

O’Neill’s point is that, on the web, “a one-way stream of video information to the consumer won’t cut it.” To perform well online, video ads need to take full advantage of what O’Neill calls the “push-pull of content” by offering consumers the opportunity to become interactively immersed in a brand.

In most cases, you have no control over the TV footage an advertiser gives you. By taking advantage of features in the Mixpo platform, you can turn passive TV footage into effective online “push-pull” content by:

• Reinforcing brand.
• Encouraging views.
• Providing incentives.

Reinforce brand

A Dynamic Logic study of 108 video campaigns showed that, in high-performing ads, the creative was so intrinsically linked to the brand that “it would be difficult for viewers to describe the ad without mentioning the brand.”

If the content of an advertiser’s video doesn’t reinforce brand as much as it could, you can add interactive visual elements that perform that role.

For example, as the following Xspot demonstrates, you might:

• Add the advertiser’s logo as an image overlay so it appears early in or even throughout the Xspot.
• Add a key tagline or campaign slogan as a text overlay.
• Use brand colors for text overlays.

The advertiser's logo appears throughout the Xspot to reinforce brand

Watch the entire Xspot

More information

Mixpo subscribers can learn more about overlays by visiting the Help page, and then searching for the term overlays.

Encourage views

Elsewhere in this blog, we’ve emphasized the key role that the thumbnail image plays in encouraging Xspot views.

In the Mixpo platform, you have full control over the thumbnail image. You can create and upload an image specifically for that purpose. Or, you can select and customize any frame from the video to use as the thumbnail image.

The following thumbnail image is effective because it:

• Includes the advertiser’s logo.
• Makes it explicit how viewers will benefit by choosing to watch.

Thumbnail image that includes branding and a call to action

Watch the entire Xspot

More information

Mixpo subscribers can learn more about thumbnail images by visiting the Help page, and then searching for the term thumbnail.

Provide incentives

After viewers start watching an Xspot, you have several options for encouraging them to immerse themselves in the advertiser’s brand.

For example, the following Xspot uses interactive text overlays to reinforce the advertiser’s audio message.

Political Xspot with overlays that reinforce the voiceover and campaign messages

Watch the entire Xspot

Other possibilities include:

• Adding image and video overlays that link to the advertiser’s website or to the advertiser’s Twitter feed and Facebook page.
• Driving viewers to the advertiser’s website with text overlays that promise more information, coupons, time-limited product offers, community interaction, and more.
• Adding lead capture overlays that allow viewers to add themselves to the advertiser’s mailing list or to request additional information.
• Customizing the INFO menu with links to retail locations, restaurant menus, blogs, product pages, and more.

More information

Mixpo subscribers can learn more by visiting the Help page, and then searching for the terms overlays, lead capture, or INFO menu.

Have you been eager to jump in to the rich-media-with-video space but aren’t sure how to get started?

Or, do you just want one straightforward approach to publishing and tracking the performance of all types of digital ads your advertisers want to run?

Now you can achieve all of these goals in the Mixpo platform.

Upload display ad files

If an advertiser has an image or .swf Flash file, you can upload that file to the Mixpo platform. Then, you can publish, run, and track the performance of the display ad just the way you can with Xspots.

In addition, if an advertiser is running TV spots and display ads as part of the same campaign, you can upload both the Flash and video files to create a display ad that expands to an Xspot.

The platform supports all of the common display ad sizes (and you can provide a custom size). As the following examples of an expanding 250×250 display ad illustrate, you have a lot of control over expansion size and direction.

• 250×250 display ad expanding left to a 333×250 Xspot anchored on the right.
• 250×250 display ad expanding left to a 333×250 Xspot anchored on the left.
• 250×250 display ad expanding down to a 250×188 Xspot anchored at the bottom.

More information

Mixpo subscribers can learn more about the new display ad options by visiting the Create page, and then clicking Can I run a display ad using the Mixpo platform?

To learn about conversion tracking for both Xspots and display ads, see the blog post Impressions and views mean conversions.

Where does that interactivity reside? Primarily in the overlays you add in the Mixpo Studio.

Overlays play a key role in an Xspot’s appearance and appeal. The better you are at working with overlays, the better your Xspots will be.

In case you haven’t discovered them yet, here are three key overlay efficiency tips.

• Turn on the grid.
• Move overlays together.
• Preview at 300×250.

Turn on the grid

Overlay placement and alignment affect Xspot appearance and influence viewer interaction. Turning on the background grid gives you a more refined level of control.

Using the grid to align overlays in the Studio

Clicking the Grid control, outlined in red in the picture above, turns the grid on and off.

Move overlays together

You spend time carefully placing and aligning overlays. Then, because you add new creative or decide the overlays don’t appear at quite the right time, you decide to move them.

If you move each overlay individually, all the time you originally spent getting the relationships and alignments just right is wasted.

Fortunately, you can select multiple overlays and move them all at the same time.

Multiple overlays selected on the Timeline

To select all overlays, click the T at the left end of the Timeline. To select multiple overlays, select the first, and then press CTRL (or the Command/Apple key on a Mac), and then select the others.

Preview at 300×250

Just because overlays look fine in the Studio preview window doesn’t mean they’ll look fine in a banner-sized live ad.

Before you leave the Studio, use the handy preview feature to see how your overlays look in a 300×250 box.

Preview at 300x250 in the Studio

Clicking the Preview control, outlined in red in the picture above, turns the 300×250 preview on and off.

For more efficiency tips, see the Best Practices section of Help.