Outbrain , a leading technology platform that drives business results across the open internet, announced the beta launch of Moments by Outbrain – a new way for users to interact with content, delivering the immersive experience of full screen vertical video browsing to the open internet. Moments enables traditional publishers and media owners to reimagine their online experience by transforming real estate on static articles into engaging vertical video feeds, bringing easy swipeable navigation to trusted, professional environments.
Audiences are spending an increasing amount of their time within walled gardens and social platforms. Moments marks the development of a true solution to bring similar algorithm-powered, visual exploration to the open internet. The new product offering brings the viral video and social media experience directly to quality publishers like Fortune and Axel Springer. With Moments, audiences have a new way to watch, read, and explore the vast amount of professionally-produced editorial content on the open internet in an environment not yet seen beyond walled gardens. In addition, Moments provides advertisers with a rich new canvas to extend the power of social formats to drive outcomes on the open internet, while offering publishers an entirely new channel to grow and engage their reader base.
“Moments is a truly exciting innovation that will enable advertisers and publishers to reimagine the way they interact with audiences on the open internet. Moments is more than just a video experience—it’s a bridge between the trusted content consumers love, and the brands they trust, creating a dynamic, immersive journey that turns casual viewers into loyal audiences,” said David Kostman, CEO of Outbrain.
Stephanie Himoff, EVP of Global Publishers at Outbrain said “The innovation that Moments brings to publisher sites will allow brands to reinvent the way that they interact with audiences in premium, brand safe environments.
“This solution brings a familiar and engaging format, normally hidden away in walled gardens, to truly diversify and develop the offering for digital advertisers. The benefits aren’t one sided either and present users with content that’s actually relevant to them. It’s going to be incredibly exciting to see how brands integrate this format in their media mix going forward to reap the proven benefits in brand and message recall, and active engagement from their audiences.”
Moments Early Adopters Show Strong Signals of Deepened User Engagement
- A recent 2024 study by MediaScience found that vertical video ads delivered in the Moments environment were rated similarly to social formats in terms of being high-quality, engaging, seamless, and entertaining. In addition, they outperformed digital ads.
- Tests also showed that users consume an average of 3.2 videos per session, with 40 percent of users watching between three and ten videos.
“We are delighted to have such an innovative partner in Outbrain to test new immersive content formats for moving images for our news brands such as BILD. With Moments, we offer our users a digital experience that significantly improves the presentation of our mobile content and meets the expectations of modern users for interactive content,” says Robert Blanck, General Manager for Advertising & E-Commerce at Axel Springer. “It promotes user interaction in a ‘natural’ way and helps us to better monetize our content. We look forward to working with Outbrain to further develop this promising solution.”
Research Finds Moments Outperforms Digital and Enhances the Effectiveness of Social Formats
For advertisers, Moments provides a solution to diversify their media mix beyond walled gardens. According to the MediaScience panel study, Moments users engage positively with the experience and its ads have the ability to drive enhanced ad viewing time, advertiser brand memory, and ad message recall versus digital ads. Specifically:
- Users spent an average of 14.6 seconds on Moments experiences, in contrast to 3.4 seconds on high-impact display experiences in similar environments.
- Moments drove significant lifts in memory of advertised brands compared to digital ads, producing 56% higher brand recall than digital ads, and 47% higher brand recognition than digital ads.
- The experience amplifies the effectiveness and impact of digital and social strategies, and leads to significant improvements in brand recall and brand recognition when coupled with TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts ads. The research shows that:
- Audiences who viewed both Moments formats and Social formats experienced an 87% lift in unaided brand recall.
- Vertical video ads delivered in Moments environments drive greater message recall and purchase intent when combined with digital ads — creating even better effects than social and digital strategies combined.
- Vertical video ads delivered on Moments environments, when combined with digital ads, drove 126% higher message recall than social ads alone and 167% higher message recall than digital ads alone.
- When compared to digital and social formats in news environments, ads delivered on Moments environments were rated as more informational and relevant than digital and social formats.
New Opportunities for Advertisers
For advertisers, Moments should open new opportunities to drive revenue growth. While vertical video budgets have traditionally focused on social networks, Moments by Outbrain will make vertical video campaigns available across its existing publisher platform and feed infrastructure. This will allow advertisers to leverage Outbrain’s extensive reach to place their vertical video formats on popular online media and engage their target audiences in innovative ways. The Moments environment keeps ad density low to ensure a positive, premium user experience.
Moments Offers Solutions for Publishers’ Challenges
Moments is expected to provide a compelling solution to spur new ad investment on the open internet, and helps publishers navigate the challenges of today’s digital media landscape by leveraging video content that mirrors the social media look and feel familiar to most users. The experience gives publishers the opportunity to more deeply engage and retain audiences.
Current Status and Future Outlook
Moments is currently in Beta and is being tested with selected partners in the USA, Germany, the UK, Italy, France, and Spain. A global launch is planned for 2025.
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