Travel Texas Partners with AdTheorent and Proof Advertising to "Turn Lookers into Bookers" for the Destination

360° Video Mobile Advertising Campaign Drove 25% Travel Lift Based on Ad Exposure

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Nov 06, 2019, 10:40 ET

NEW YORK, Nov. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- AdTheorent, Inc., a digital advertising leader using advanced machine learning technology and solutions to deliver real-world value for advertisers and marketers, and Proof Advertising, an Austin-Based full service ad agency and a four-time recipient of Advertising Age's Small Agency of the Year, today announced campaign results from the "Travel Texas FY 2019" mobile advertising campaign. The goal of the campaign was to drive engagement across the "Millennial" and "Gen X" targets, ultimately encouraging visitation to Texas.

Driving Excitement for Texas Through Custom Expandable Rich Media Unit
To drive high impact awareness while showcasing Texas highlights, AdTheorent's Studio A\T created two custom 360° Rich Media gyrosphere units (one designed for each of the Gen X and Millennial audiences). The purpose of the creative was to highlight passion points for each audience and entice travelers to learn more about Travel Texas. In order to create a fully immersive 360° gyroscope experience without associated video production investments, an equi-rectangular image was created by stitching together multiple images. This experience was paired with hot-spot vertical videos highlighting the breadth and depth of activities that Texas has to offer. Users can navigate within the 360° view between different activities by either swiping or moving their device, accessing videos, a gallery and other materials.

Identifying Audiences: Custom AdTheorent Audience Builder
To identify the target audience of people interested in activities taking place in Texas and to inform targeting, AdTheorent utilized a custom AdTheorent Audience Builder capability. AdTheorent's Audience Builder leveraged elegant live-poll ad units to identify a deterministic audience of engaged "hand-raisers" interested in traveling to Texas.

In this case, AdTheorent polled individuals about Texas activities with the following question:

What type of Texas trip excites you?

Outdoor
Food & Drink
Arts & Culture
Shopping

AdTheorent used the attributes and characteristics of responding consumers to build a Predictive Audience, after which AdTheorent's machine learning platform identified the consumers within that audience who were most likely to convert, leading to smarter optimizations and better performance results.

"Whether you're an adventurer, antiquer, foodie or historian, Texas is a destination for everyone and compellingly highlighting the range of activities in our advertising efforts is a crucial part of generating mindshare among our target audiences," said Ly Tran, Associate Partner, Chief Media Officer at Proof Advertising. "The combination of the beautiful 360° video ad units, AdTheorent's unique ability to deterministically identify audiences interested in traveling to Texas, and use of machine learning to identify those with the highest likelihood of visiting has been an extremely effective approach for us, and we are thrilled with the results of this campaign."

The Results
As a result of the campaign, Travel to Texas was positively impacted:

25% arrival lift based on ad exposure to non-Texans.
2:1 return on ad spend based solely on tracked hotel revenue (not measuring spend in market, etc.)
38% conversion rate based on visiting key pages of TravelTexas.com

Additionally, one of the key goals for the 360° mobile creative was to garner rich media engagement. The 360° video unit encouraged very high in-unit engagement rates, with a large volume of actions related to the gyroscope functionality, suggesting interest. Overall, engagement rate was 22%, which is 4.5X higher than the mobile interstitial average. Average time spent in unit was 67% higher than the industry average.

To view a campaign video, visit: http://bit.ly/traveltexas

About AdTheorent^®AdTheorent uses advanced machine learning technology and solutions to deliver real-world value for advertisers and marketers. AdTheorent's industry-leading machine learning platform powers its predictive targeting, geo-intelligence, proprietary relationship graph and in-house creative capability, Studio A\T. This product suite allows advertisers to identify the most qualified individuals coupled with the optimal creative experience to drive campaign performance and deliver on advertiser KPIs at scale.

In the last year, AdTheorent's solutions have been recognized with numerous awards, including: "Best AI-Based Advertising Solution" (AI Breakthrough Awards), "Most Innovative Product" (B.I.G. Innovation Awards), "Most Innovative Platform" (DMA Innovation Award), as well as Frost & Sullivan's "Digital Advertising Leadership Award" and Deloitte's Technology "Fast 500." AdTheorent is headquartered in New York, with thirteen offices across the United States and Canada. For more information, visit adtheorent.com.

About Proof Advertising
Founded in 2010, Proof is an independently-owned idea distillery of 95 passionate, talented people located in Austin, Texas. Proof has been featured in Advertising Age, Adweek, Creativity, Communication Arts and The New York Times and is a four-time recipient for Advertising Age's Small Agency of the Year. Proof's diverse client roster includes innovative brands nationwide and globally such as Subway Restaurants, Travel Texas, Mouser Electronics, among others. For more information, visit http://www.proof-advertising.com.

About Travel Texas
The mission of Travel Texas is to enhance and extend local economic development efforts by marketing Texas as a premier travel destination in out-of-state domestic and international markets, generating non-Texan travel to the state.

SOURCE AdTheorent, Inc.