Advertisers Embrace 'Rich Media' Format
What does “rich media” mean?
One word – video. Interactive videos have exploded in popularity over the past few years and advertisers and marketers are following suit. There are a multitude of benefits to using this format, including enhanced ROI, improved engagement rates, better metrics, and increased customer insight into marketing campaigns. Rich Media is more than just video advertising; it’s an innovative way to engage with your audience that is set to transform the advertising industry as we know it.
What type of advertising is “rich media”?
Rich media includes video, interactive video, and other innovative formats that leverage the interactive capabilities of the Web. Both TV and non-traditional mediums are now making the move to include rich media over traditional formats. The difference is that traditional formats rely on typical advertising techniques such as commercial breaks and sponsorships while rich media includes interactivity similar to websites using Flash (technology). It’s like television that you can choose to watch or surf for information, entertainment, or both. Because there is less linear time than a digital medium like the Internet allows for, this format presents many more opportunities for marketers. There is even the possibility of live events being broadcast over rich media.
Why are advertisers migrating to this format?
Advertising can be expensive to produce and distribute. Traditional methods yield more ROI, but at significantly higher costs. There are two main reasons why marketers are choosing this type of advertising: 1) It’s a marketing necessity, and 2) It generates money with higher return on investment (ROI). I will explain each reason in a bit more detail later in this article. In order for an advertiser or company to use rich media, they must first upgrade their technology to support the new format. This is a common trend in the advertising industry and will only continue – you must have the right tools to be successful.
Why use “rich media” rather than other formats?
Rich media is an extension of how we now consume content. It has become widely accepted as an effective marketing tool due to its interactivity; this allows for a more personalized experience between the marketer and consumer. An example of this would be online advertisements where you can choose not to view the ad or simply click by it. With interactive ads, you can engage with the advertisement to make a more personal connection. While there are drawbacks to rich media, such as short attention spans, this is the future of online advertising and what you’re going to start seeing more of.
Where can I view "rich media"?
As previously mentioned, rich media is interactive and works best on “interactive portals” such as Yahoo!, MSN, or AOL. You can also access some rich media via email or through online news services such as Google News. Formats will vary depending on your location and technology but you will start seeing this more and more frequently in the near future.
The main advantage of rich media is that it increases customer engagement. A study by AdRelevance showed that users who opted-in to receive interactive ads spent nearly four times longer on a website and ultimately saw benefits from this extra time. The more time a visitor spends on your site, the more content they view, the more likely they are to convert into a sale.
Interactive video software has also been shown to increase conversion rates by up to 3x more than standard banners and other formats for two reasons: 1) users can be directed toward specific information, and 2) creative can be used in a much more effective manner due to the interactivity of rich media.
Since rich media is viewed more frequently and engages users more, advertisers are able to track more user actions, including their preference for certain products, which improves the ROI significantly. Many rich media campaigns also use “look-alike modeling” to match consumers with similar characteristics that have already been successful. This is a very attractive option due to the nature of interactive formats and the ability to customize it to an individual’s preference like this.
Rich media has a higher lead quality than other formats because it helps marketers capture information from a qualified prospect. The information gathered can be used later on when negotiating contracts or setting pricing plans for future products or services. The buyer-seller relationship is significantly improved with rich media because the individual is able to take action at will.
Rich media forms have been shown to have a 150% greater click-through rate than other mediums and a 300% more effective use of creative. These numbers suggest that there is a higher level of interaction between the marketer and consumer that results in a more successful ad campaign. Interactive formats such as rich media allow for the marketer to create one-to-one relationships with customers and prospects, which results in increased ROI for brands. In fact, the level of engagement (time spent) has been shown to increase by 150%.
Rich media has become accepted by ad agencies as a viable marketing tool due to the high ROI and its interactivity. Rich media also generates more sales than traditional mediums like billboard advertising and sponsorships, which is generally thought of as less effective for making money. There are a wide variety of formats that are easy to produce through rich media software. Many use Flash, a platform closely associated with Internet technology. The ability to download flash video from different websites has increased the popularity of this format.
What’s being said about rich media?
The technology and use of rich media is generally welcomed by clients due to its ability to increase ROI, engagement level, and consumer motivation. Many clients also value the personalization that comes with interactive ads. Clients also report less ad blindness when they see a live video versus a still image. There are, however, some drawbacks to this new format. Creative may be more expensive to produce and there is more work involved in developing rich media campaigns. As technology continues to improve, the quality of rich media will become comparable to print, television and radio advertising – at a much lower cost.
"Rich media" has the opportunity to provide businesses with access to customers through real-time interaction across multiple channels. It could include:
The use of "rich media" is largely dependent upon bandwidth availability and network access speed as well as the user's computer performance. Since rich media uses many technologies such as Adobe Flash, QuickTime and Java, the typical user must have these technologies installed on their computer before they can view the rich media. In addition, the server that hosts this content has to have enough bandwidth to deliver the rich media file without interruption.
In addition to these factors, rich media ads use a large amount of storage space on your computer's memory (RAM) and hard disk drive (HDD). This could lead to a long load time for a page that contains these ads. Many websites are now offering multiple versions of pages by placing standard banners on lower quality broadband connections but displaying "rich media" ads on higher quality connections.
Conclusion: For rich media to be successful it requires a lot of factors to come together at once, which is why not many advertisers are using rich media.
One of the biggest problems facing rich media today is the live stream aspect. More than 60% of Flash users use Microsoft's Internet Explorer and a little over half of them don't have Adobe Flash version 9 or above. Each version does not support all the features found in previous versions. One of these unsupported features is RTMP streaming, the sole form of live streaming for rich media ads. The lack of this feature leaves only one option for delivering ads with live content: progressive download, which delivers an ad as a series of images that then become animated when clicked on.