Get started with creative enhancements
Overview
Creative enhancements are visual upgrades applied to your existing ads on the Equativ exchange. You don't need to rebuild or re-upload creatives, because Equativ adds an enhancement layer to your existing assets.
Equativ renders enhancements at auction time. This process lets you maintain your existing workflow with current creatives, tags, and deals while serving richer, more engaging ad experiences.
Key benefits
Creative enhancements help advertisers and curators achieve the following goals:
- Extend creative reach: use a single creative across more placements on the Equativ exchange without building additional sizes or formats.
- Improve message clarity: add headlines and captions to help users immediately understand your offer.
- Increase attention and engagement: add dynamic elements such as headlines, tickers, or shoppable frames to capture attention and encourage interaction.
- Preserve brand safety and control: keep your original creative visible and recognizable, because enhancements don't replace or distort your ad.
- Enhance brand recall: make your brand more memorable by reinforcing visual elements across placements.
Workflow
Equativ adds creative enhancements during ad delivery. When a publisher sends details about a placement, the Equativ exchange evaluates eligible ad types and creative sizes for that placement, then sends bid requests to demand-side platforms.
When Equativ receives a bid response, the system checks impression eligibility based on size, format, category, and opt-in status. If eligible, Equativ applies the most relevant enhancement and delivers the enhanced ad to the user.
The enhancement mechanism depends on the delivery type:
- Display: size multiplexing
- Outstream: format enablement
- Instream and CTV: MediaFiles swap or VPAID layer
Enhancement categories
Creative enhancements support Display, Outstream, and CTV or OLV inventory. Compatibility varies by enhancement.
CTV or OLV corresponds to instream inventory. Outstream refers to display supply that Equativ enables for outstream video.
The following table lists the creative enhancement categories and their descriptions:
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Custom templates | Trivia, CTV CTA scrollers, news tickers, and other custom CTV templates aren't available through self-service configuration in Maestro. Contact your account manager to request a custom template. |
| Headlines and captions | Headline adds manually entered headline text and optional supporting text. Captions adds captions to video ads. |
| Interactive calls to action | Shoppable creates an interactive experience using product tiles and call-to-action buttons. QR code adds a scannable code that links to a landing page. |
| Timers | Countdown adds a countdown timer for events, launches, or promotions. |
| Weather and sports | Weather displays a multi-day weather forecast. Weather - Daily outlook displays a daily forecast and environmental indicators. Sports ticker displays sports scores and upcoming games. Golf coverage is available within Sports ticker through PGA Tour (Golf) for CTV or OLV inventory only; it isn't a separate enhancement. |
For supported inventory formats and device compatibility, see the Creative enhancement compatibility matrix.
For information about configuration fields, available values, and defaults, see Creative enhancement parameters.