Though the games are customizable, BrightLine uses some basic templates to avoid having to develop each experience from scratch. It has different formats based on factors like advertiser categories and trending events, such as March Madness or the holidays.
Once Disney delivers the ad assets, Brightline takes between three to five days to develop the advergame, according to Power. This enables the product to scale, which is critical for spurring adoption.
Rather than gaming engagement, the shoppable product focuses on converting viewers into customers. These new formats, powered by Kerv, showcase specific products and feature QR codes that users can scan and be transported directly to the retailer’s website.
Critically, these shoppable formats are available programmatically, which reduces the barrier to entry for brands looking to experiment with them. The formats launched with Disney in April, although the company declined to provide specific engagement data.
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These new ad products are part of a broader initiative from streamers to offer advertisers and consumers a variety of ad experiences.
Advergames increase user engagement, and shoppability turns ads into direct-response channels. Both are priced competitively now, but if they generate above-average engagement, they could command higher CPMs in the future, according to Power.
Products like these are rapidly transforming the world of television advertising, which has—until relatively recently—been limited to standard video formats in varying lengths of time.
With streaming, the ads are both targeted to viewers and can be more closely integrated into the content, such as the sponsored billboards now on view in Roku City.
“These kinds of ads are certainly going to be more memorable, especially because they are still pretty unfamiliar to most people,” Shields said. “They will definitely stand out, at least at first.”