Breaking Through The Noise: Innovative And Creative Mobile Ads To Connect With Gen Z And Millennials

Did you know there are 307 million smartphone users in the US? 97.64% of Gen Z and 97.61% of Millennials in the US use smartphones. How do you tap into this growing consumer group and create content they want to engage with?

In this blog, you’ll learn how innovative mobile ad formats, such as interactive and gamified ads, can create exciting and engaging ad experiences.

The Need for Innovative Mobile Ads

With the rise of social media platforms and streaming services, it goes without saying that smartphones have become the go-to device for Gen Z and Millennials for entertainment and communication. This has significant implications for brands, as they need to produce creative mobile ads to grab the attention of this audience directly on their smartphones.

What makes Gen Z and Millennials unique as a target audience? Their increased focus on smartphone communication makes them skeptical of traditional advertising and more likely to engage with brands offering personalized and interactive experiences. Especially Gen Z or Zoomers, who have grown up with smartphones, prefer to buy from brands with clear values, that are inclusive, and have a strong online community.

The advertising industry was recently criticized by advertising legend Sir John Hegarty, who argued that most brands fail to be exciting and important in consumers’ everyday lives.

The notion that sufficiently good creative can’t necessarily find a way to cut through and make a cultural impact regardless of how scattered media consumption becomes is “bullshit”.

— Sir John Hegarty

This is why innovative mobile advertising is crucial for brands today. Having low user engagement results in low brand awareness. By producing creative mobile ads tailored to mobile devices and easily consumable on the go, brands can effectively engage with Gen Z and Millennials and explore the opportunities to lean into this growing consumer base.

Crafting Effective Messages for Limited Attention Spans

One of the primary hurdles for brands advertising on mobile devices is the limited attention span of the target audience. Capturing and maintaining the audience’s focus can be quite demanding, with numerous distractions.

Creative mobile ads provide exciting opportunities for brands to connect with their target audience. Gamified mobile ads use playful and innovative messaging to grab the attention of Gen Z and Millennials in a snap.

Blending fun and creativity with granular targeting, effective gamified ads deliver memorable and engaging experiences that elicit engagement quickly and efficiently and stick with viewers long after clicking through.

Utilizing The Power of Creatives

At mCanvas, we’re on a mission to help brands drive higher engagement through the power of creatives. We create solutions that disrupt standard advertisement formats.

Every brand has a unique story to tell and getting it across with the help of creatives can be complex. mCanvas can help find solutions to the attention challenges when brands advertise on mobile.

With mCanvas, we were able to create something fun and unique and achieve 48X higher engagement rate than industry average, which is a testament to the campaign’s incredible success
— Associate Director, Digital Brand & Marketing, Standard Chartered Bank

Our platform offers immersive mobile ad formats that combine the power of storytelling with interactivity, enabling brands to create memorable experiences that connect with their target audience.

By utilizing our mobile ad formats, our clients gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of their ad campaigns by tracking engagement and interaction rates. This enables them to optimize their ad campaigns for maximum impact, providing engagement rates beyond what others can achieve. Disney Studios teamed up with mCanvas for their Avatar: The Way of Water ad format. The result? A 4.80% engagement rate – 24X higher than the industry standard!

It was paramount for us to promote MIB: International in a fun manner, and our association with mCanvas helped us not only have a highly engaging campaign but also result in direct ticket sales for the film. The team designed a campaign which was closely aligned with the elements in the movie, and we are happy to see that it has been awarded with this prestigious accolade.
— Head and Director of Marketing, Sony Pictures Entertainment

See Our Results: A Collection of Success Stories

To demonstrate our capabilities and show how we can benefit your brand, we have compiled a selection of case studies that showcase our successful results.

Yahoo Mail

The objective was to increase awareness of Yahoo Mail’s free 1000 GB storage offer and assure users that they would never have to worry about running out of space in their mailbox. To achieve this, we created a gamified mobile ad campaign.

The campaign was a huge success, achieving +4% engagement rate and capturing the attention of a million users. Through an innovative and engaging approach to promoting their new feature, we helped Yahoo Mail demonstrate the power of creative advertising in driving user engagement and increasing awareness.

Go to the Yahoo Mail case study

Standard Chartered Bank

Our goal was to help Standard Chartered Bank increase awareness of their banking services for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) living in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and to provide an interactive experience that showcased the essential features of their services.

Through an engaging campaign, we were able to reach close to 1 million NRI users and drive a remarkable 9.7% engagement rate, highlighting the bank’s commitment to providing top-notch services to citizens around the world.

Go to the Standard Chartered Bank case study

So, what do we know; and how can it transform your advertising strategy?

Gen Z and Millennials consume media on their smartphones more than ever. So, if you want to engage with this audience effectively, you must produce creative mobile ads tailored to mobile devices and easily consumable on the go.

By creating mobile ad formats and leveraging mCanvas’ targeting tools and innovative sensors, you’re able to capture the attention of Gen Z and Millennials and gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your ad campaigns. This enables you to stay relevant in today’s mobile-first world and to explore the opportunities of the growing consumer base.

Want to make sure you’re not falling behind? Get in contact with mCanvas to learn how you can create effective, creative content for your brand!