Mobile video advertising is moving beyond the traditional watch-and-click model as brands look for ways to turn passive viewers into active participants. A new study from Digital Turbine, conducted with researchers from King’s Business School, Bayes Business School and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, finds that interactive elements embedded in mobile video ads can materially influence which brands consumers consider purchasing.
Digital Turbine’s research, published as “The Ultimate Guide to Interactive Mobile Video Ads,” analyzed 250 mobile advertising campaigns and gathered responses from nearly 270,000 consumers across Automotive, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Entertainment, Retail, Technology and Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) categories. The study focused on advertising delivered within mobile gaming environments, where users are already accustomed to active participation.
The central finding is straightforward: interactive mobile video advertising can do more than generate engagement; the design of the interaction itself can influence brand choice.
The research examined three forms of interaction—Browse, Sample and Play. Among them, Play produced the largest reported increase in brand choice at 36.6%, followed by Browse at 31.5% and Sample at 29.6%.
The distinction matters for advertisers because the three formats serve different purposes.
Browse allows consumers to explore information inside the ad through features such as hotspots, galleries and menus. That makes it particularly suitable for products with multiple features or variants. The study found Browse especially effective in Technology, Retail and Entertainment.
Sample is designed to replicate aspects of physical product interaction. Consumers can explore visual customizations or see different product configurations without leaving the advertising experience. The approach performed particularly well for QSR, CPG and Automotive campaigns.
Play takes a more entertainment-led approach, incorporating game mechanics into the advertising experience. According to the research, it delivered the strongest average increase in brand choice and was particularly effective for Entertainment, Technology and Retail advertisers.
That finding is significant for the broader mobile advertising ecosystem. Advertisers have increasingly focused on attention, engagement and measurable outcomes as conventional digital targeting becomes more constrained by privacy changes and platform fragmentation. Creative quality is consequently becoming a more important part of media performance.
Digital Turbine’s own earlier attention research offers another indication of where the company sees mobile video heading. A 2023 study conducted with Amplified Intelligence found that its mobile video ads generated an average of 22 seconds of active attention, compared with 1.6 seconds for mobile web video and 2.5 seconds for social video in the study sample.
The newer research shifts the question from whether consumers pay attention to what they do with that attention.
That is increasingly relevant as digital video budgets expand. The Interactive Advertising Bureau projects U.S. digital video advertising spending will exceed $80 billion in 2026, with spending expected to grow 11% year over year. IAB also points to increasing advertiser demand for quality and measurable business outcomes as video investment expands.
For mobile publishers and app developers, interactive advertising also presents a potential monetization opportunity. Rather than treating the ad as an interruption between gameplay sessions, interactive formats can make the advertising unit itself part of the user experience. Digital Turbine’s current platform spans advertising, app monetization and mobile distribution, with its DT Ads offering positioned around full-funnel advertising and interactive mobile experiences.
But interactivity is not automatically a performance advantage. The study points toward a more nuanced approach: the interaction should match the product and consumer decision process.
A technology advertiser, for example, may benefit from letting consumers browse product features. An Automotive campaign may gain more from allowing users to sample configurations. An Entertainment brand may be better positioned to use game mechanics.
This creates an important distinction from simply adding interactive buttons to conventional video. Creative teams now have to consider the interaction as part of the advertising strategy rather than as an optional feature.
The research was conducted by Dr. Yusuf Oc of Bayes Business School, Professor Kirk Plangger and Dr. Stefan Bernritter of King’s Business School, and Professor Francesca Sotgiu of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The research team analyzed campaigns within a mobile gaming app, with approximately 156,000 consumers exposed to ads containing Browse, Sample or Play elements. Consumers were subsequently surveyed by Nielsen Research Company about which brand they would consider purchasing next.
The academic involvement is also notable because mobile marketing and gaming are becoming increasingly connected areas of advertising research. Bernritter’s research interests include mobile marketing, gaming, consumer-brand interaction and AI in advertising.
For enterprise advertisers, the practical takeaway is less about choosing one universally superior ad format and more about matching creative mechanics to campaign objectives.
Programmatic buying can provide reach and audience targeting, but the creative layer determines what consumers experience after the impression is delivered. Interactive mobile video gives brands another lever for influencing that experience while potentially generating richer engagement signals.
The challenge will be measurement. Advertisers will need to distinguish meaningful interactions from superficial taps and connect engagement data with downstream outcomes such as consideration, conversions, incremental sales and return on ad spend.
That makes interactive creative increasingly relevant to the convergence of mobile advertising, gaming, programmatic media and performance measurement. As brands compete for scarce consumer attention, the next stage of mobile advertising may not be about making video more immersive for its own sake. It may be about designing advertising that gives consumers a reason to participate.
Market Landscape
Interactive mobile advertising sits at the intersection of programmatic advertising, mobile gaming, video advertising and creative optimization.
The opportunity is expanding alongside digital video investment. IAB expects U.S. digital video spending to surpass $80 billion in 2026, while its latest research emphasizes growing pressure on advertisers to demonstrate business outcomes and improve media quality.
For advertisers, this puts greater emphasis on the creative experience after an impression is won. Platforms from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe and other advertising ecosystems increasingly compete across audience intelligence, automation, measurement and creative optimization. Mobile advertising platforms such as Digital Turbine are taking a more specialized approach by combining mobile inventory, gaming environments, advertising technology and monetization infrastructure.
The competitive question is therefore shifting from “Can we reach this audience?” to “What happens when we reach them?”
Top Insights
- Digital Turbine’s research analyzed 250 campaigns and nearly 270,000 consumers, giving advertisers new evidence on interactive mobile video advertising.
- Play generated the strongest reported brand-choice lift at 36.6%, making game-based creative particularly relevant for entertainment and technology advertisers.
- Browse and Sample delivered different strengths, suggesting advertisers should match interactive formats with product complexity and consumer decision behavior.
- Growing digital video investment is increasing pressure on advertisers to connect attention and engagement with measurable business outcomes.
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