Hearst Launches Vertical Video Ads On All Of Its Mobile Website Properties

Hearst is adding fullscreen vertical video ads to its mobile mix — beyond its Snapchat Discover pages, where the format initially proliferated.

The company has now launched vertical video ads on all of its mobile website properties — though they are in highest demand on those with younger-skewing audiences, including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Seventeen, and Marie Claire.

“We are working on creating products that take the vertical video expertise we have, create content using vertical video, and actually put it on our sites,” Todd Haskell, chief revenue officer for Hearst’s digital media division, told Digiday. Hearst already runs vertical video ads on its two Snapchat Discover channels, Cosmopolitan and Sweet, as well as half-page vertical ads on desktop sites.

The first vertical ad created exclusively for Hearst’s mobile sites comes care ofRalph Lauren. While marketers might eventually repurpose creative from Snapchat to run elsewhere on the mobile web, none of Hearst’s advertisers have done so thus far, according to Digiday.

Once considered an eyesore, vertical video has become an increasingly lucrative orientation for publishers — especially (as Hearst’s latest move illustrates) beyond the social media platforms like Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook, where it was popularized. While traditional mobile video ads can cost around $5 per 1,000 views, Digiday reports that multimedia and video interstitials can fetch a CPM of up to $10.