Google Announces “Real-Time Ads” So Marketers Can Jump On The Next Left Shark Moment

To help marketers take advantage of “micro-moments” — those events that everyone starts talking about — Google is today announcing online Real-Time Ads.

A typical micro-moment: last year’s performance by the left shark in Katy Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show.

For Real-Time Ads, AdWords online tools will allow a pre-created ad to have a component — such as a photo or overlaid text — that can be updated immediately to reflect some event that is generating chatter. It points to the day when ad elements may be automatically generated from, say, trends detected on social media.

The new ad format — announced at a press event in Google/YouTube’s New York City offices — is now being made available to a select group of brands. Google said it expected to roll out the new service “more broadly” later this year.

“With Real-Time Ads,” the tech giant said in a statement, “brands will be able to instantly run an ad across YouTube, hundreds of thousands of apps, and over two million sites in our Google Display Network with a message that ties directly to the big moment consumers just experienced.”

One brand that will employ Real-Time Ads on the Web during this year’s Super Bowl will be website building and hosting firm Wix.com. Comcast will employ the new format during the Oscars. Google said it has been trying out the format with EA Sports, including a test in 2014 of the Madden GIFERATOR.

Accompanying the Real-Time Ads announcement, Google said it is beefing up its YouTube AdBlitz channel and site for Super Bowl ads, where viewers can watch, share and vote on the ads.

This is the eighth year for AdBlitz, and it heightens YouTube’s role as the complementary source of Super Bowl ads. Beginning today, AdBlitz is featuring teasers for the ads.

Google reported that 37 percent of the time users spent watching Super Bowl Ads on YouTube last year was before the game. Additionally, brands that released full versions before the Sunday game got an average of 2.2 times more views and 3.1 times more social shares by Monday than those that didn’t release it online until the game.

In 2015, viewers watched the equivalent of 1,600 years of Super Bowl ads on YouTube — double the total running time of those ads watched the year before. More growth stats are available in the YouTube Trends Report.

Google is also inviting a select group of YouTube talent to create original video content for AdBlitz around the theme of “How to Win Game Day,” with the videos being released in the week before the February 7 game.

The series is hosted by Jake and Amir, and Flula will act as band leader. Other Creators include MyLifeAsEva, Hannah Hart — creator of “My Drunk Kitchen,” who will demonstrate a Super Bowl recipe — and fouseyTUBE.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.

(Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)