So two big improvements rolled out last week for a number of our SmartCircular Grocery clients that integrate 3rd party display ads in and around their weekly ad sites.
1. For the SuperValu SmartCircular sites that ShopLocal operates, display ads have now been integrated within the HTML / low bandwidth version so as to maximize display ad revenue generation. In the words of our forefathers, “let no page view go un-monetized”.
So a single leaderboard ad unit has been added within the header area of all of the HTML versions of the SuperValu SmartCircular sites.
2. For the Ahold SmartCircular sites that ShopLocal operates, an enhancement was made that finally maximizes the amount of revenue that can be generated via display ads on the site. The prior issue that this adjustment solves is that all of the page views that occurred within the browse by page modes only got one (1) single ad impression served regardless of the number of page views generated. This was roughly a 10:1 ratio. Ten page views generated, one ad served overall. Now however, this ratio is exactly equal, in that every page view now is getting an ad impression served. 10:10 is where we are.
By tightening up the integration between the flash page turning component and the publisher ad server, many more ad impressions can be delivered per user session.
Within ShopLocal’s SmartCircular suite of solutions, there are two main options that retail advertisers pick from. A more simple SmartCircular 2.0 site or a more engaging and feature rich SmartCircular 4.1 site.
Coming soon to clients that are currently using the SmartCircular 2.0 solution for their weekly ads is a entirely rebuilt from the ground up animated page turning component. With this new Adobe Flex/Flash based animated circular page turning component (that internally here at ShopLocal is called the hybrid movie), the following are some of the key benefits that this new release delivers on (in no particular order):
- Deep integration into ShopLocal’s publisher ad server (DFP) so that those retailers that choose to deploy display ads around the content within their circular site, every possible page view generated by users can now have a banner ad served, thereby maximizing revenue generation
- Much improved web analytic integration and event queuing/firing mechanisms which will have higher accuracy in some fringe use cases
- New smart page slider bar with visual look ahead and progress bar meter. Also this page slider bar dynamically appears below really long circular pages to help with vertical page scroll usability issues
- Re-worked back end data integration so that the robust SDAPI is now powering the animated page turning experience
- Rollover impression tracking is enabled automatically and will aide wisdom of the crowds accuracy rates
- Reduced ongoing maintenance costs for both ShopLocal and the retailer
- Quicker time to market for any new features that either ShopLocal or the retailer wants to deploy
For a look at one of first clients to have this deployed to, check out Big 5 Sporting Goods SmartCircular 2.0 site
Here is the front cover of a circular being displayed within the updated animated page turning component. Notice the enhanced UI of the page turning component and the addition of a page slider bar.
Here is a spread or two page view with the page slider visual look ahead feature engaged. This will allow users to get a better idea of what is contained within an specific page without first having to actual turn there.
Within the Staples SmartCircular site, a new circular viewing mode has been added called ‘Full Screen’. While this is not the first SmartCircular client to deploy full screen (Meijer & Target for example both have this feature) browsing, it is the first time that the new visual ‘Look Ahead‘ feature has been layered in within the slider navigation bar.
This small feature solves a key usability issue that when a user is dragging the shuttle on the slider bar, the user has no idea what content lies within say pages 14-15. By showing a thumbnail image of what content is contained for any given page number, the user can actual have a small idea of what sort of content is on that page. It’s a bit of a copy from the Vista or Windows 7 taskbar which has a similar feature, but none the less a very effective enhancement. At this point, adding this UI element (e.g., Look Ahead) to any and all slider bars (regardless of the circular viewing more) is going to be the ShopLocal’s team recommendation going forward.
Note the small thumbnail image that appears under the shuttle on the page slider bar. This is the visual "look ahead" working really well.
Meijer yesterday unleashed a real great addition to their weekly ad site called Full Screen browsing. Just like a YouTube video when maximized that takes over every inch of a user’s monitor, now when browsing the circular a user can see the largest possible circular page images. It also reduces all of the noise that comes with a full site header, footer and browser menus and toolbars. All of this clutter instantly disappears within full screen browsing. It does make for a more enjoyable, simpler experience.
This will really help improve the readability factor that from time to time be an issue for some users. The only constraint that is inherent to utilizing this type of Adobe Flash player type full screen presentation style is that any keyboard inputs of any kind cancel / end the full screen browsing experience.
Within the typical browse by circular page view that most shoppers choose to use, a new view option has been added called Full Screen.
Once full maximized, everything included the browser bar and skin is covered up. All that remains is just the weekly ad pages. This offers a great, simplified and focused user interface that excels at text readability within the circular.
Target continues a long trend of constant iteration with their most recent release of the online weekly ad site. The most notable new features that were part of this update were:
- Enhanced Product Rollovers: Usually the rollovers that appear within a SmartCircular site follow the mouse cursor. We have now finally broken this old “rule” so that the rollovers do not move around. Rather when the rollovers appear, they have a static position that actually allows a user to interact within the rollover.
- Print A Single Item Of Interest: Offers a simple and well formatted, printer ready view of the product.
- Share (via AddThis.com integration): Creates an easy conduit for a user to re-post an item of interest to many leading social networking and/or bookmarking sites.
So from a standard browse by circular page view...
...a user can trigger a product rollover to appear and then choose to interact with three different calls to action: View Details, Print or Share.
By clicking on the print option, the user is taken to a printer friendly HTML popup
By clicking on Share, the user is taken to a AddThis.com hosted HTML popup layer that enables the item of interest to be shared across a host of social networking sites as well as saves as a bookmark within some bookmarking type sites.
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