The fifth session of Day 1 of the second edition of Digipub World, organised by afaqs!, had three panellists from the publishers' side and one from the agency side discussing their respective trysts with newer ad formats. That newer ad formats are the way to get ahead is a debate that is not new. "It was a case of publishing more pages, burning more banners and making more money. But that is falling apart right now. We are now moving to native, branded content." Now that publishers are moving to newer ad formats, does the onus of innovating ad formats too lie on the digital publishers, unlike print? "If so, is that fair?" asked Gangal. "I feel that it is a collective onus. Formats per se have to be homogenous work across multiple publishers. No one has really succeeded with great innovations in ad formats other than a lot of us spending four, or five, years monetising home page takeovers," pointed out Charles. With the rise of mobiles and the obvious opportunities that presents as readership moves to mobile, what are the kind of ad formats that work on this platform? What kind of tech support will make it a reality? Many formats that work on the web don't work on the mobile.... Charles pointed that what plays out on phones is the data not so much the format. Looking into the future, what are the top three new ad formats that each panellist would vote for? Laxman's view was that Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality were the way forward - from an advertiser's perspective. With brands wanting to integrate their content creatively on publishing platforms and publishers looking to innovate their way into clients' hearts, the relationship would seem to be heading for a win-win situation. Read more