mCanvas launches Smarticle - experiential sponsored content solution

Connects attention deficit mobile users to brands using immersive content experiences. mCanvas, the mobile storytelling ad platform, has extended its suite of storytelling formats by launching Smarticle - a measurable sponsored content solution that uses phone sensors and features to tell a brand’s story effectively.

Smarticle - short for smart article - is a first of its kind experiential content article solution created for mobile phones. While existing content marketing solutions only allow long-form text content, a Smarticle boasts of an array of visually appealing images, real-time content, animations, gifs, videos, and user interaction events blended with text content. This changes the user behavior from simple passive consumption to active participation. Creatively using all these elements enables a brand to communicate with its digitally connected consumers on comScore Tier 1 publishers in India. mCanvas provides a ready marketplace of over 50 publishers across different categories for brands to choose from. For the launch, mCanvas partnered with Tetra Pak and Webchutney to create a Smarticle that engaged over 2,20,000 consumers in India across 4 publishers. The article opened to an introduction of the poor practices of buying and storing milk in India before revealing the top 5 benefits of consuming milk in Tetra Pak cartons. Each of these 5 benefits was revealed to the user with a simple shake of the phone. Bite-sized and visually appealing content made the article snackable and eye-catching resulting in average time spent of around 47 seconds.

Commenting on the launch, Jaideep Gokhale, Communications Director, South Asia Markets, Tetra Pak said, “Tetra Pak, always being open to new ideas, instantly recognized Smarticle as the way forward. We wanted to engage & communicate the benefits of milk in cartons to the audience with a contemporary approach and Smarticle has helped us achieve exactly that. We look forward to creating more such brand experiences for our audience in upcoming campaigns.”

Gurjot Shah Singh, VP and National Media Head, Webchutney said, “ With the digital economy moving towards mobile, as advertisers it’s our responsibility to maintain the thin line between spamming and personalized experiences keeping that in mind we continue to reach out to our consumers contextually and with experiential ad formats, one of our preferred partners mCanvas is helping us build this together.  With this new experiential content format, mCanvas is bringing interactive content to audiences effectively.” “Having worked with 200+ brands over the last 3 years has helped us create a goldmine of data and given us insights into how millions of users in India interact with rich media mobile ads. We are applying these learnings to sponsored content pages and are excited about the prospects of creating a win-win-win result for consumers, brands, and publishers. mCanvas has always been at the forefront of mobile innovation and our investment in Smarticle is another step in that process,” said Vishal Rupani, Co-founder & COO, mCanvas.

Smarticle provides in-depth analytics that measures time spent, scroll depth, video metrics, user interactions and events. Third-party trackers can be added for additional verification. The in-house creative team and engineering team at mCanvas use an advertiser’s campaign brief and creative assets to create a bespoke sponsored story. Smarticle is currently available only on mobile web. More information on Smarticle is available on www.mcanvas.com/smarticle