News Corp Australia has unveiled Shoppable Video Advertising, described as a market-first ecommerce initiative allowing brands to connect with consumers to make purchases directly within advertisers' video content.

The product, using technology from interactive video platform Vudoo, enables a purchase within video advertising, without leaving the video.

The initiative was revealed at D_Coded, News Corp Australia’s fourth digital marketing event for advertising, marketing and media executives.

News Corp managing director, national sales, Lou Barrett, told AdNews: "We want to play in the video space more than we have in the past.

"This product really delivers a seamless, interactive user experience for people. So they can jump on and complete a purchase while they're in the middle of a video, without leaving the video. It's a really unique."

She says shoppable advertising is the next evolution to facilitate real business outcomes for brands.

“By introducing shoppable solutions we are taking customers closer to the transaction, helping brands drive sales and growth," she says.

Pippa Leary, managing director, client product, says the shopping experience generates an unprecedented level of engagement between brands and consumers.

“As we continue to drive innovation in our business and increase the value and expertise in our data and digital offering we are building an unmatched suite of ‘buy now’ initiatives,” Leary says.

“Today’s consumer is always on and ready to buy. The time between the start of their purchase journey, or click to buy, can be just seconds.

“We’ve partnered with Vudoo to build new interactive video technology that presents the customer with the opportunity to ‘buy now’ while in the video.

“For the consumer it allows them to act immediately on the desire to buy without leaving their chosen content, resulting in a unique shoppable video experience.”

The shoppable ad unit allows brands to amplify their video advertising across the News Corp Australia digital network and also across the open web with the purchase capability intact and contained within the video experience.

News Corp Australia can target the shoppable video to its tailored Shopper Audience segments using News Connect’s first party targeting capabilities.

The video can then be distributed across the company’s digital network, which reaches more than 15.7 million Australians every month.