Top 10 Innovid Blog Posts of 2023

Who can resist a list?

As the year-end approaches, it’s instructive for content marketers to examine what blog posts most interest their audience. At Innovid, this listing of our most popular blog posts shines a spotlight on what topics the TV advertising world cares about most. 

Here’s a list of the top 10 Innovid blog posts, determined by page views, since Jan. 1, 2023.

1-What the Heck is an Ad Server and Why Do I Need One?

This blog post explains the basics of what an ad server is. It stores digital ads, including TV spots, and delivers them across channels and devices. Beyond the basics, this blog post also explores how modern ad servers have evolved into a centralized locus for uploading creatives, defining delivery parameters, tracking performance, and gaining insights into measurement and ultimately optimizing campaigns. 

Excerpt: “Ad servers have advanced significantly. At Innovid, we like to compare today's ad servers to the iPhone. Just like you depend on your smartphone, brand and agency professionals increasingly rely on their data-driven ad servers. Today’s ad servers are much more than a system to transport a tag from point A to point B. They're now an indispensable technology that boosts ad performance, increases ROI, and delivers a unified view of your total marketing efforts.” 

2-9 Cutting-Edge QR Code Advertising Strategies

QR codes are quietly revolutionizing connected TV (CTV) advertising. This blog post provides examples of interactive ads that have used QR codes to create shoppable ads, to gamify their advertising, to engage their audience with quizzes, and to boost app downloads. Examples covered in this post include Burger King, Avocados from Mexico, and Lovesac.  

Excerpt: “QR codes are the new “Buy Now” button for CTV. To create a shoppable ad experience—and drive direct sales—link a QR code to your e-commerce site or the checkout page of a specific product featured in your video ad. Use a call-to-action like “Scan to Buy” and link to a mobile-optimized web page that taps into saved payment options to create a frictionless and immediately gratifying customer experience.”

3-InnovidXP Enables Local & National Advertisers to Drive Outcomes Across Connected TV & Streaming with Disney Advertising

In this post, Innovid detailed its partnership with Disney Advertising, which built on a multi-year partnership with Hulu. The post points out that InnovidXP is among the first measurement solutions to integrate with Disney’s Audience Graph. With the partnership, InnovidXP enables the measurement of outcomes — such as app conversion and web visitation — across Disney’s addressable footprint. Our tool gives local and national advertisers the tools and insights to inform and continuously improve their campaign strategies. 

Excerpt: “To provide advertisers with always-on, actionable insights across select Disney digital and streaming inventory, Innovid and Disney Advertising are collaborating to power greater insights in Addressable by enabling an integration between Innovid’s converged TV measurement platform, InnovidXP, and Disney Advertising’s first-party Audience Graph.”

4-AI in Ad Tech: Cutting Through Hype & Harnessing Potential

Innovid’s Cody Wymore penned this blog post to examine the realities of AI in advertising technology. He describes the current moment as “frenzied” and uses this post to cut through the hype to see what’s going on with AI in the world of TV advertising.  

Excerpt: “Innovid's latest real-time offering, Instant Optimization, is a first step towards this AI-enabled future in TV advertising. Using KPIs from InnovidXP — such as website visits, app downloads, or on-site purchases — advertisers can effortlessly shift their focus to high-performing ads, enabling the platform to make real-time adjustments that significantly improve digital performance.”

5-AdTech on Deck: Understanding VPAID vs. VAST

Advertising technology can be an alphabet soup of acronyms, with VPAID and VAST being among the tastiest ingredients. In this post, Innovid breaks down the differences between VPAID (video player ad interface) and VAST (video ad serving template) and what the distinctions between these technologies mean for TV advertisers. 

Excerpt: “Ad tags like VAST and VPAID are standardized scripts, or pieces of code, that are generated by an ad server in order to bring video ads submitted by marketers to publisher platforms (e.g. Hulu, Facebook, ESPN). For publishers, tags act as placeholders for ad creative and signify available inventory—think of it like a vacant billboard.”

6-Apple, Attribution & InnovidXP: How Innovid Is Responding to Recent Privacy Enhancements

This post explores Apple’s commitment to privacy and what effect that might have on marketers’ attribution efforts. In the post, we explain how InnovidXP continues to respect privacy concerns while still helping marketers gauge the performance of their advertising campaigns. 

Excerpt: “There is absolutely no doubt that privacy will continue to be an evolving topic, both within our day-to-day consumer lives and within the technology and media ecosystems. And, as companies like Apple and others implement new privacy features, we will see such data loss impact the attribution approach and accuracy of every player within the measurement ecosystem.”

7-AdTech on Deck: Currency vs. Measurement

A debate continues around the relative importance of currency and measurement. This post explains how and why currency and measurement are not the same thing. It also shows that what TV advertisers really want to know is not program viewership as a proxy for ad exposure (currency). Instead, they want to understand the true reach and impact of their campaigns on viewers (measurement).  

Excerpt: “I'd like to point out that in this new era, the MRC and MRC accreditation will be even more important, because it will be crucial to have a foundation of reliable data for measurement. And advertisers agree: A recent survey by Innovid found that 86.8% of brand and agency professionals place a high value on MRC accreditation.”

8-Innovid's NEW Self-Paced Certification Is Here

In this post, Innovid announces a new self-paced certification program for users of our platform. The learning management system provides an on-demand, customized learning experience to gain a better hands-on understanding of campaign management and creative on the platform. It helps scale your team’s onboarding, so everyone, regardless of time zone, has equal access. 

Excerpt: “Innovid is now offering clients an opportunity to get certified in using our solutions, at their own pace, through an online learning platform. We’re providing self-service partners with on-demand access to comprehensive training, including videos and step-by-step documentation.”

9-Innovid's Continued Focus on the Future of TV Advertising Measurement

In this post, Innovid clarifies its vision for the future of TV ad measurement compared with currency. Innovid CCO Dave Helmreich makes it clear that Innovid is purpose-built for the future of TV, where brands, agencies, and publishers will need a partner (like Innovid) that is native to streaming. 

Excerpt: “Innovid is currently delivering measurement solutions in the converged linear and CTV landscape today through our InnovidXP solution for brands, agencies, and publishers, and consistently focused on the future, anticipating a 100% digitally delivered TV landscape sooner rather than later.”

10-It's All About the Creative

This post makes the case that measurement tools are good at analyzing media performance in a campaign. The next step is for measurement tools (like InnovidXP) to improve their capability of measuring the performance of individual creative executions. What marketers need is insights into which creative is most effective at driving outcomes and insights into when creative has reached its saturation point with the audience. 

Excerpt: “In bringing a campaign to life, there is so much emphasis put on an idea, and then the focus turns to where the media runs. With that, creative often becomes an afterthought. The measurement of creative performance should be maintained throughout the life of a creative.”

Learn more about InnovidXP’s latest game-changing feature: Instant Optimization.