It is hard to name the advertising format more powerful than video. Engaging and memorable, video content impresses the audience and helps advertisers succeed. Videos are proved to have the power to increase conversion rates and therefore – sales.

For that reason, in-stream ads are great options for companies’ investments. The popularity and efficiency of video content ads has significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemics. After a notable drop in Q1, video impressions share increased by 40% in Q2. Mobile and desktop video ads will definitely stay on top even when the lockdown is over because the pandemics inculcated new watching habits and so advertising changed as well. 

Video content takes the leading position due to its long-lasting effect and engagement. Compared to banners that were popular not so long ago, videos are significantly more catching. The amount of banners we see on web pages is unbearable, that is why people willfully or unconsciously ignore them. The so-called banner blindness makes these ads almost invisible for visitors’ eyes. On the contrary, videos can do a lot of things – surprise, entertain, inform, and captivate. Let’s focus on a couple of popular video ad formats and discuss them.

What Are the Most Popular Video Ad Formats? 

Publishers should be aware of ad format options and stick to the most appropriate ones – this is the right way to ensure positive user experience. Here are the most popular ones:

In-banner ads

In-banner video ads are great for websites where users stay for a while. They are not as fast as static banners, so publishers should consider the time metric when implementing such ads in their inventory. These videos have high viewability since they stay in the viewpoint when users scroll the page.

In-stream video ads

In-stream advertising is implemented in streaming videos, games, and music videos requested by viewers. They can be placed at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end (pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll) of the main content. They are usually short and skippable.

In-read video ads

In-read ads require strategic implementation – they should be located within a long-read aimed to retain users for a long time. Like in-banner ads, these ones also have high viewability.

Floating video footers

These ads are similar to in-read ads – they stay at the viewpoint even when users scroll the page. Footers usually include audios, so make sure that you set them properly and turn the sound off by default. Otherwise, the ad will blast your visitors off right after they enter the site.

The first two formats – in-banner and in-stream video ad – require special attention, since they are the most popular these days. Let’s continue our investigation and talk about them in detail.

In-stream and in-banner ads: pros and cons of both

Advertisers in-stream display their content as a part of the played video. This format is perfect to increase publishers’ income, especially when they stick to CTV. As we have already mentioned, these ads can have a different placement (beginning, middle, and end of the main video). Depending on the place, ads will solve various tasks – for instance, pre-rolls improve brand awareness, and post-rolls boost conversions.  

Pros:

• Pre-rolls are non-skippable, so viewers will definitely see them before the main content begins;
• Viewers don’t mind watching in-stream ads – they are not very obtrusive;
• In-stream ads can be interactive, so they encourage consumers to react immediately;
• When playing a video of their interest, people have their attention active, which decreases the rate of abandonment.

Cons:

• Viewers can leave the page before the ad completes – this is especially the case for end-rolls;
• Viewers can also leave if the main video is short – this makes in-stream ads annoying;
• The ads must be relevant to users’ interest, or they will hardly interact with them or watch them entirely.

To highlight the distinction, let’s consider in-banner video ads’ pros and cons now. Here they are: 

Pros: 

• People decide to click in-banner ads themselves, which excludes intrusion; 
• Website visitors are used to banners.

Cons: 

• Visitors use ad-blocks too often since most in-banner ads are annoying and cannot be stopped;
• These ads are more annoying than in-stream ones, especially for those who read long texts on web-pages;
• Banners are everywhere and therefore people overlook them too often.

Summary 

Video ads can increase your chances to boost conversions. Whether you choose in-stream or in-banner format, make sure to use it wisely. Mind the time users spend on particular pages, find the best place for your promotions, and the most important – make them relevant. Remember that people view and click only those ads that really make their interest. This will put you ahead of the competition for sure.

Advanced technology has reshaped lives. Modern technology brings changes to the workplace environment. Thus, changes the working streamline and business process.

On the other hand, technology modernization brings new automated software and innovation, moving away from the age-old software and hardware solutions. In this way, it enhances employee experiences. Ever thought about how MNC manages its employees working all over the world in real-time? The answer is technology. Even small businesses and companies are also incorporating technologies to improve the efficiency of their workers.

A decade ago, there were communication barriers, resource management barriers, lots of paperwork, meetings held offline, company collaboration issues etc. But the organization has found its way to employee-facing problems like time tracking, pay subs and learning. After all, modern problems require modern solutions.

So how does technology has improved employee lifestyle? There are 4 ways technology can modernize employee management.

How Do Technology Modernize Employee Management?

There are certain ways technology has shaped the modern office. The updates have affected the work method in a great way.

1. Increase Productivity

How to be productive? Maximum employees search for this question. The first and foremost key is time management. Otherwise, it results in missing deadlines. Hence, unhappy clients.

Additionally, seamless project management is important to enhance productivity. It clearly defines the task deadline, resources and inefficiency of the project. Poor project management exposes high risk, leads to time-wastage. Eventually, it tears down employee confidence.

However, HCM management (Human Capital Management) helps an organization recruit, process, develop and optimize employees’ performance. Besides, the adaptation of artificial intelligence (AI) helps companies to integrate employee management. AI enables human resources to find deserving applicants regarding the job description among thousands of CVs. Consequently, hiring the right and skilled talent to increase productivity.

2. Enhance Communication

During COVID-19, employees tended to work online more. Technology has improved its way of communicating more largely. Video conference and screen sharing have become so easy nowadays. 54% still want to continue to work remotely in the future. In this way, employers can be more engaged with their employees from anywhere. Ultimately teamwork has boosted to a new level.

On the other hand, mobile learning has become famous when it comes to training the employee. Mobile learning eliminated the need for time and place. The work-from-home facility provides more time and flexibility. Henceforth, happy employees and growth in business.

3. Effective Collaboration

Technology has modernized even in collaboration among the companies and its employees. Cloud technology enables people to share information and applications over the internet from anywhere. Thus, easy to collaborate globally.

Besides being in the office, employees can receive and upload their work through file-sharing on the cloud. That can be accessed or edited by others. It makes collaboration more effective and cooperative.

Additionally, employees can attend virtual meetings, whether being in the home or in transit. Modern technologies like Zoom, Skype, Google Meet have made this possible.

4. Improve Security Level and Protection

One must be aware of protecting the company’s private data and information. Without proper security, hackers can get into employee’s accounts and steal information. However, with several team members working or communicating online, it’s become difficult to protect. Tech-savvy hackers can easily access the company’s database.

Eventually, the modern online security system ensures high security and protection. Also, it’s better to train the employees to be careful about sharing information online. In addition, using strong passwords, updating the device and software, and using a VPN while accessing public WiFi can prevent data breaches. Thus, technology protects the workplace from information leakage.

Conclusion

Technology improves employee management in several ways. Besides the above-discussed ways, technology has modernized the business to improve cost management, boost employee engagement and enhance self-service. It has eliminated the need for manual file sharing. With password-protected tools, it is now secured to share files online. File-sharing technology also enables users to view the history of changes for any file. 

Additionally, innovative software with automated process provides an error-free result. Altogether, there is less chance to compromise with the company’s productivity and profitability.

When a video game development company needs to port a game to a new console, it is a big deal. The benefits of porting a game are huge, and it is a no-brainer because you can reach a totally new audience in a much cheaper way compared to creating a totally different game.

If you or a company is dead set on porting a game in the future, then you should definitely consider outsourcing the game porting process because there are key benefits. It might seem scary to let another company take on this process, but it really will make sense after you check out a few of the reasons.

It Is Not Your In-House Team’s Specialty

The biggest reason why porting a game makes sense for a company to outsource is because the in-house team might not have experience in porting a game. Porting a game is not a super popular thing to do for some people in the industry, so it understandable that a lot of people are not skilled at it.

Letting outsource experts take care of your outsourcing needs is going to be much more effective for you. Just having an in-house team wing it and try to get a project done is not effective by any means. It could also lead to headaches if you do not outsource because your team could have made big mistakes that will set your porting project back and make it more expensive.

It Will Makes Your In-House Team More Effective

Piggybacking off of the last point, when you have experts performing the porting process, then you are going to free up time for your in-house team. This is huge because you will have an in-house team that will be able to work on projects that actually suit their skillset.

When you have a team only performing things that they have experience in, then it is just a much more effective method instead of having an inexperienced team working on porting a game. A good manager is going to place employees where they are most effective, and if you have employees that are not effective in porting then absolutely do not have them port games!

It Could Save Money

The last point that I have might not always apply, but it is certainly worth pointing out. By outsourcing a specific task like game porting, it could save a video game developing company a ton of money. This is only relevant if the in-house team of a company makes quite a bit per hour.

If the company could find porting specialists that have a lower rate per hour in terms of pay, then it would be much more cost-effective for the company to outsource the porting process. It might not save much, but sometimes every penny does count! It could go a long way in the end.

Hopefully, all 3 of the examples made sense as to why outsourcing makes sense in some situations when a game needs to be ported.