The deal marks the first time Oath has found a buyer for its new offering.
To promote the second season of “Mars”—a science-fiction show produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer—National Geographic is venturing where no brand has ever dared go before: programmatic virtual reality ads.
“It’s no different than how we look at it in the real world,” said Dennis Camlek, NatGeo’s executive vice president of strategy and consumer marketing. “[In VR], if you look around and see Mars marketing hitting people in a real-world [format], it makes you kind of stop in your tracks a bit.”
The ads, running through Nov. 18 in Out of Universe, Skyfront and Jurassic VR—show up within the existing VR landscape of each game. The deal marks the first time Oath has found a buyer for its new VR offering, which it announced this summer at Cannes Lions. The technology is powered by the supply-side platform Admix along with BidSwitch and Oath’s own demand-side platform. And just like regular programmatic ads, it targets users based on their interest in tech—especially if they are among an “affluent” demographic, said Jeff Lucas, Oath’s head of sales Americas.