With responsive design websites now automatically adjusting how their content is displayed across devices, Mi9 has partnered with Nissan so that advertisers can now follow suit.

Polymorphic advertising streamlines the creative process for advertisers by allowing a single, rich advertising format for multiple content and services on PC, tablet, Xbox and mobile across the Mi9 network.

Traditionally, advertisers looking to run campaigns across multiple screens have had to develop separate ad formats for each device, and as a result, reaching consumers across all touch points has been an expensive and time consuming process – until now.

Polymorphic ads were developed in response to changing consumer behaviour, with recent Mi9 research showing that 75% of people use multiple devices. Mi9’s new ad format enables advertising across a range of platforms, which is expected to be an increasingly profitable growth area for brands.

“Multi-screening has become the norm so Mi9’s polymorphic ads address a critical need in the marketplace. For the first time brands have the opportunity to leverage new media formats across devices more easily – without it costing the earth,” said Emma-Jayne Owens, national sales director at Mi9.

“The average time to develop rich media from asset delivery to working preview is eight days, and with our new polymorphic technology this now typically takes just two days, allowing advertisers to get their message out to market more quickly, while providing a richer experience across multiple touch points. Not only does this allow for a seamless cross device advertising experience, it also crosses our whole breadth of services, such as ninemsn, Skype, outlook.com, Xbox, Windows 8 apps and many more,” she said.

To develop a polymorphic campaign, brands simply select a desired ad experience from a menu of options and provide Mi9 with their pre-approved assets such as images, video, URL or text. Mi9 then transforms the assets into media ads optimised for each screen.

Nissan is the first advertising partner to pilot polymorphic ads with Mi9 to drive awareness of its new sports utility vehicle, the Nissan Juke, among 25 – 39 year olds. Since the target audience are savvy technology users who zone out from advertising that doesn’t captivate them, the creative is designed to communicate the edgy style of the Nissan Juke, whilst getting cut-through with a mass audience across a variety of screens.

Commenting on the partnership with Mi9, Peter Clissold, executive general manager, marketing, Nissan says, “Nissan is pleased to be a part of an industry first such as this, as it delivers on our promise of 'Innovation That Excites’. The polymorphic ad units presented across the Microsoft network through Mi9 are an efficient and effective way to reach the Nissan JUKE audience on multiple devices. The targeted audience for Nissan JUKE are individuals that are difficult to communicate with on any one platform. Therefore the polymorphic ad units take our content to the user, delivering it across multiple devices and channels.”

Commenting on the partnership with Mi9, Simon Kallgren, Carat’s digital director for Nissan said, “My client and I are really excited about polymorphic ads being rolled out in Australia with Mi9 – we see this as the future of multiscreen media planning. Although all touch points are important, we rarely have the production budget or resources to create assets for each platform. I foresee most major networks rolling this out in the near future and it is great to be a launch partner in this innovative space.”