Polar, a tech solutions partner to hundreds of publishers globally, entered the South African market last year with an exclusive partnership with The SpaceStation, the digital sales house for the 24.com network, the largest digital publisher in the country.
In the past 12 months, Polar and The SpaceStation have introduced Social Display into the local South African market. The solution makes it easy for brands to amplify their existing social media posts outside of social feeds and distributed across the 24.com network as digital ads.
Over 50 brands, including Samsung, H&M, Capitec, Shoprite, Cape Union Mart, Sony, Hasbro, Clarins, Johnson & Johnson, Coca Cola, Elizbeth Arden, Standard Bank and Nissan, have activated over 200 campaigns using Social Display on the 24.com network so far with impressive results.
Attention time is the average time an ad is seen. Research has shown that the average time an ad is seen in a Facebook news feed is 1.7 seconds. With Social Display, Polar’s global benchmark for attention time is nine seconds, and for campaigns run on the 24.com network, the benchmark is even higher at 12 seconds. These figures are measured by Moat, a trusted third party verification and measurement provider.
“We were impressed with the attention time our social creatives get when delivered on the 24.com network targeted at a relevant audience segment using Social Display,” said Francois Botha, Group Digital Performance Manager at Shoprite. “Attention does matter and the ease of execution and simplicity of Social Display is why we continue to use it.”
With Polar’s Social Display solution, brands can take their existing Facebook, Instagram and Twitter social posts and run them in digital display inventory across the 24.com mobile websites and the News24 app against relevant audiences on News24, Sport24, Fin24, Channel24 among others. Brands appreciate the ability to repurpose existing creative without having to incur additional production costs.
“Brands who are looking to achieve upper and mid funnel marketing objectives such as awareness and consideration are starting to understand that both the creative and the environment matter”, shared Gavin Ruiters, Sales Director (Coastal) at The SpaceStation. “With Social Display we make it easy for brands to use their best creative, from social, and have it seen in a trusted environment, at scale, where audiences are highly engaged.”
Brand research conducted by Ipsos, a global research provider, has shown that Social Display delivers a 30% increase in consideration, a 20% increase in awareness and an 18% increase in purchase intent, compared with the alternatives. When users spend time with a brand’s creative, the brand is far more likely to influence awareness, preference, interest, consideration and intent.
“Facebook has a viewability problem, which agencies know well and brands are starting to learn about,” shared Kendall Schultz, Polar’s EMEA Partnerships Director. “The rate at which users scroll through social feeds makes it near impossible for brands to make an impression.”
Polar and The SpaceStation have recently made available new capabilities for Social Display,
including:
- Attention metrics, measured by Moat, for all clients
- Always-on campaigns, to automatically promote all of a brand’s social posts in real-time
- Programmatic buying workflow support and self-serve access to Polar’s creative tool
- Mobile app inventory support on the 24.com network
To learn more about how brands are leveraging their social creatives in trusted environments to deliver results that matter, visit http://spacestation.polar.me or contact Gavin Ruiters (az.oc.liamecaps@nivag) or Craig Nicholson (az.oc.liamecaps@giarc) at The SpaceStation.
About The SpaceStation
The SpaceStation executes world-class, multi-platform digital media solutions across more than 20 premium websites, mobile sites and apps, from leading brands at Media24, 24.com and MultiChoice, and is the leader in the rapidly growing and evolving digital advertising arena in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The SpaceStation offers unrivalled, strategic and competitive access to over 24 million unique browsers globally and over 450 million page impressions. Part of 24.com and the Media24 Group, The SpaceStation is Naspers’ lead digital media sales house in SSA. Visit thespacestation.co.za to learn more.
About Polar
Polar is a technology solutions provider to hundreds of trusted publishers around the world. Trusted publishers, like 24.com, News Corp, Conde Nast, USAToday, The Telegraph, NBC and more, use Polar’s Format Management Platform (FMP) to create, execute and optimise a variety of digital advertising products. These include native, social, display, video and commerce formats. Polar is based in New York with offices in Toronto, London and Sydney. Visit www.polar.me to learn more.
