Samsung Ads, the advertising arm of Samsung Electronics’ media division, has launched an Immersive Carousel ad unit which enables advertisers on Samsung TV home screens to run ads with up to five separate tiles. The ad unit is available on the 70 million-plus Samsung Smart TVs in Europe – one in every three Smart TVs overall.
The format auto-rotates every five seconds, or manually via the remote control, and can be used to promote multiple products or content items within a single ad placement for a variety of calls to action.
The Samsung home screen has already emerged as a major space for content, services and advertising. Across the EU5 markets, Samsung Smart TV users visit the home screen five times a day, from the moment they first switch on the TV and throughout their viewing experience as they search for what to watch next – making it one of the few places in the fragmented streaming environment where the mainstream audience can reliably be found.
The Immersive Carousel works equally well for entertainment and gaming brands looking to drive users directly to their apps on Samsung TV – but it also works for non-endemic brands seeking to boost awareness and consideration.
ITVx has already used the Immersive Carousel to boost visibility and engagement for shows including Olivia Attwood’s Bad Boyfriends, The Princess Diaries and The Only Way is Essex. Samsung ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) data reveals that those exposed to the ad spent 90 minutes longer in the ITVx app during the week of the campaign compared to unexposed viewers. Those who viewed all five tiles spent 40% more time in the app than unexposed viewers, leading to stronger conversion performance.
But beyond TV content, the ad carousel is also delivering for consumer goods brands. For example, says Samsung, a luxury menswear brand deployed the Immersive Carousel unit to deepen brand resonance and awareness among affluent and luxury shoppers. Ad awareness was 41% higher for high-income earners exposed to the ad than for those not exposed, while brand awareness among frequent luxury shoppers was 36% higher when the ad was shown.
These early campaigns serve as strong proof points for the Immersive Carousel format, with more campaigns from big-name brands in the pipeline.
Alex Hole, SVP and General Manager, Samsung Europe and MENA, says: “We know the home screen is where viewers’ content discovery journey begins on connected TVs. The home screen Immersive Carousel delivers the rich storytelling capabilities that advertisers are looking for, while also enabling them to promote multiple products, or multiple aspects of the same product, in a single ad unit. More importantly, the results from early campaigns show the genuinely dramatic effect of the Immersive Carousel on ad brand awareness and app usage.”
