Evolving Ad Creative

For years, we’ve watched digital advertising shift in a definitive direction: more creative, more testing, more insights.

We went from building one ad and measuring its performance to building three. Then 10. Then 50. And we’ve learned a great deal in the process.

From a Zynga standpoint, though, one question stood out: How do we evolve that model for our environment? How do we apply it to a custom, full-screen, interactive ad experience?

For years, we’ve built premium experiences inside games: playables, shoppables, interactive video and other custom formats. Applying traditional Dynamic Content Optimization (DCO) to those experiences could mean producing dozens of finished ads, each requiring production, approvals and measurement for every stop across the player journey.

So, we pivoted to a different premise:

What if, instead of producing more and more “completed” ads, we produced one Living Creative?

One experience built from a defined set of display variables, such as the background, characters, game board, messaging, or gameplay elements, with multiple options available for each. Every time the ad loads, one option from each variable is selected to create the experience a player sees.

The possibilities multiply quickly. Five backgrounds x five characters x five gameplay elements = 125 potential creative combinations from a single ad unit.

And because those combinations can change from one impression to the next, the experience doesn’t have to feel static or repetitive. It can look and feel a little different every time a player encounters it. As a result, it begins to feel alive.

That variety creates an opportunity to sustain curiosity and engagement for the player, while simultaneously creating a much richer learning environment for the advertiser.

Each unique combination can be tracked for performance. Which background drove the most interaction? Did that change depending on the character? How did messaging affect those successful pairings?

We move from asking “Which ad won?” to understanding why it won, where it won, and the influence individual components had on that result.

This summer, we began deploying these experiences with a series of preferred partners. Early campaigns have shown significant engagement lift as they progress. Just as importantly, we can see in greater detail where and why performance is changing, and carry those learnings forward.

That’s the opportunity we see with Living Creative: instead of simply creating more versions of ads to learn, we can build a single experience designed to keep changing, teaching, and delivering higher performing results.

Going forward, the creative doesn’t just launch. It lives.