If you’re in the digital ad space you’ve undoubtedly been hearing the numbers about digital ad growth – especially as it pertains to mobile – being thrown around by trade organizations and industry experts. According to these experts, the US digital ad industry is slated to surpass $100 billion in annual revenue by 2021. Much of this growth, unsurprisingly, is largely being driven by consumers devoting more of their time to connected devices. As such, more and more brands are shifting TV ad dollars over to digital but apparently not quickly enough.  There is, as technology and internet prognosticator Mary Meeker calls it, a “mobile opportunity gap”, which according to her is a $22 billion opportunity.

Mobile Opportunity Gap

Def: “the gap between the share of time consumers spend on mobile devices and

the share of ad dollars that is spent on mobile inventory.” – Business Insider

But before you start taking your current TV spots and recycling them for digital, you’d be wise to take pause with the bigger opportunity that’s at play. Simply repurposing TV ads for digital is not enough and it’s also a big ‘no-no’. You wouldn’t take a print ad and throw it on a billboard would you? Nor would you take a TV spot and use the audio on radio. Your message needs to match the medium. As such, if you’re going to sit at the creative drawing table and devise a digital campaign, why not consider using one of the most powerful tools ever to fall into a marketer or advertiser’s hands that seems tailor made for mobile: 360 degree ads with a one-touch virtual reality mode.

With the costs of 360 degree cameras coming down and 360 & VR technology improving, it’s becoming more and more affordable and realistic for creatives, publisher brand marketing units, agencies and brands alike to get their 360 video shooting chops whet. While they may find that filming for 360 comes with a completely new set of rules, it also comes with a completely new way by which to engage and entertain audiences. Which, of course, is what will ultimately have brands running to the 360 VR trough before too long – they are probably the most immersive and engaging content platforms the ad marketplace has seen. So, without any more ado, we give you the Top 10 Reasons Your Mobile Ad Spend Should Be In 360 Content:

Exceedingly high initial engagement – Call it the “wiggle factor” if you will, but there’s something incredibly compelling about the realization that the simple movement of your mobile device can control an ad experience. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Grab your smartphone and look at the 360 degree ad below… you can’t help but be engaged.

2:First mover advantage – Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk has extolled on this for quite a while, when there are new trends in marketing it’s the first mover who can reap the biggest reward. We couldn’t agree more (check out the link above).

3:Sustained engagement – While ads featuring 360/VR are great at grabbing attention, perhaps their real strength lies in their inherent ability to sustain ad engagement beyond anything that we’ve ever seen. With 360 degree ads, you can create an endless rabbit-hole of interactivity that can feature 360 video, images, virtual reality content, and more! The limits are your creativity.

4:Positive brand association – Consumers are excited about 360 and Virtual Reality. The brands who leverage it are looked at positively by audiences of all ages.

5:It’s where the eyeballs are less distracted – Video consumption on mobile continues to grow & what’s even more important for marketers to recognize is that when they do consume video on mobile, odds are that consumers aren’t as distracted as when they watch TV. 360 degree ads tap into consumers’ mobile consumption behaviors & they can be viewed vertically (a la Snapchat) or in landscape mode.

6:Analytics, Trust & Viewability – With 360 & VR come an advanced set of data collection points that can provide consumer & ad insights never before possible. Not to mention that these analytics help with trust & viewability issues as well.

7:More Immersive brand storytelling experience – The only thing more immersive than 360 & VR is actually being there! With 360 & VR, brands have at their disposal one of the most immersive ad platforms that’s ever existed.

8:Better brand recall – A Nielsen Media studio found that “people recalled brands in 360 video up to 28X more than brands in 30-sec mid-roll ads.”

9:Better content recognition – On average, 360° content is 8X more effective for content recall than traditional ad units. (Nielsen Media)

10:Higher intent to purchase – Trusted industry audience pros Nielsen Media released a study indicating that “compared to traditional ads, 360 degree video content positively affected purchase intent for up to 3X as many consumers.” (Nielsen Media)

So with all that going for it, what do you think is holding back the onslaught of 360 degree ads with VR mode on mobile (or even desktop for that matter)? We’d love to know your thoughts!