By: Josh McLain, josh@createwithnova.com

Today I’m happy to share that we're releasing several new video features for CTV and online video. We released our first automated video templates last year, and have since been analyzing the space and talking to our partners to figure out what we can do to make it easier to bring CTV and OLV to a wider range of advertisers. 

Why Focus on CTV?

Omnichannel video, and specifically CTV, remains a growing opportunity for all advertisers. The potential isn’t limited to the big name brands you commonly see advertising on streaming services today. In fact, there are three types of advertisers we had in mind with this new release:

• Local and SMB advertisers: those with videos on social who want to tap into new video channels (CTV/OLV), but don’t have the budgets to generate new, channel-specific video
• Larger brands with social roots: those with influencer campaigns that want to amplify vertical videos beyond social media
• D2C brands: those who have grown through social media and want to expand their audience reach into new channels

Eliminating the Creative Bottleneck with CTV

If you add up all of the advertisers on social media or search engines. . . what’s stopping them from running on CTV? Typically they don’t have the creative assets. TV commercials and video productions have high production costs, long development cycles, and layers of approvals. Our newest release to Nova’s creative automation tools makes it easier than ever to generate the best video, whether you’re repurposing video running on another platform or manually importing video files.

Here’s how we’re making it easier than ever to create great looking CTV ads:

• Advertisers use creative they’ve already built and love (and often have seen perform well)
• Start with already approved assets to avoid lengthy back-and-forth approval processes
• Customizable QR code is automatically included, along with data on scan activity
• VAST tag that you can take to any VAST supported inventory.

What We’re Releasing Today 

Below is a high-level summary of the new features we’re releasing. Existing customers will see these automatically when they log into their Nova dashboard. 

1. Auto-Import Videos from Multiple Social Media Platforms

With one click, you can import a video from Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, just as you can with any other Nova creative ad formats. Alternatively, you can upload the media directly to our platform and customize the creative from there.  

2. Use Built-In Trimming Tools to Easily Fit Any Supply-Side Requirements

We’ve added intro/outro support and simple video trimming to all of our video templates, making it easy to generate a 6 second, 15 second, or 30 second video without having to rely on an external video editor.

3. Customizable QR Codes Included Automatically, At No Extra Cost

Add a QR code to any CTV ad, and customize the on-screen presentation (color, size, placement, call-to-action) along with the destination URL.

4. New Design Options for Video Backgrounds

Want to add a specific background color, or blur effect? We make these easy now with a simple on/off toggle.

5. Customize Video Layouts and On-Screen Components

Choose from over 13 different font families, move QR codes around, teste different looks for your QR code, text placements, etc to nail just the look you’re going for.

6. In-Browser Video Rendering Makes it Easier than Ever

All customizations you make to your video ad can be viewed in real-time, allowing you to quickly build an ad in minutes. Once you like what you see, just hit render and we’ll produce the final video ad for you, along with the VAST tag you’ll need to run your campaign.

We’d love your feedback!

I believe that what we’ve built will make CTV a more accessible platform to advertisers  by removing many of the creative barriers to entry. If that sounds like something that would make your job easier, please reach out to me at josh@createwithnova.com and we’d be happy to set up a demo, and show you a mock up for any advertiser or social media post you have in mind.

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