A massive trend here and across the globe was much more video content. In fact, last year almost 40% of ads served across the globe through the Eyeblaster ad-serving platforms contained video. This compared to 20% in 2004.
There was also a bigger shift to rich media across Europe and Asia specifically and rich media in particular started to appear on more media plans as an integral part. The rise in rich media meant that animated gifs were employed a lot less.
2005 also saw much better use of interactivity within ads, with big brands looking to engage users with a vast array of rich media creative. Interactivity ranged from putting an entire microsite in a banner – so the user doesn’t have to leave their webpage – to using flash and video assets that users could play with, vote on, influence, move and shape.
The best creatives delivered a combination of unique messaging and engagement that tied in the brand. The rise in interactivity – and the take up from consumers of such ads – meant that advertisers gave more weight to interactivity measurement as a campaign success criterion.
The message finally trickled through to advertisers from media agencies that click through rates can no longer be the sole measure of a campaign’s success, especially when you can have multiple interactions on a page.
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What percentage of online display ads use rich media technology?
It’s difficult to be exact because it is measured mostly in North America and not much in Europe. It also depends on the definition of RM – ours differs from our peers. But in short, I would say 20%-30% of overall display budgets go to rich media.
I would say confidently that it is rising significantly across the globe as the expertise of creative and media agencies continues to blossom, and that usage is intrinsically tied in with a knowledge of the potential.
In the UK, we are someway ahead of China for example in terms of usage, hands-on knowledge, creative empowerment and so overall spend. But we don’t anticipate a long time before the education process kicks in and China in particular will be one of the largest online display markets.
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Last year I read that floating overlays, essentially the same format as a pop-up, account for about a quarter of all ads served by Eyeblaster. Is that accurate?
A pop-up (we call it a window ad since it opens a new window in the browser) is not the same format as an overlay. An overlay, subject to restrictions placed by a specific publisher, gives the advertiser complete freedom to paint a bespoke out of banner experience.
Never have I seen this work more effectively than for an award-winning NSPCC campaign which ran through us last year whereby a small girl walks alone and vulnerable across the web page.
Floating ads can be powerful when used correctly, but the use is beginning to drop after a peak of a couple of years ago. Expandable banners made up most of the ads we served last year.
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Why do you think floating ads are in such high demand among rich media advertisers? Do floating ads generate higher ROI than other forms of rich media ads? Is this why marketers still favour these rich media pop-ups?
Floating ads are not pop-ups. Floating ads – that run over content but not separate to content like pop-ups - are in less demand because the shift is moving to polite or expandable banners, which deliver interactive experiences. This is because lots of content can be pushed into the banner space without causing intrusion.
We only see a demand for floating ads with specific advertisers with a specific target audience. Floating ads can be really effective with the right creative. A couple of years ago, floating ads were used a lot because they were new and ‘in your face’.
It’s true that floating ads have traditionally produced higher click through rates, but now expandable banners are more effective. And in higher demand. Also, click through rates are not a sole determinant of ROI. Especially since floating ads cost more than other formats.
Ultimately, it is a combination of creative, media placement, rich media formats and features and ad-serving technology which will affect ROI. The use of brand and response tools in creative, along with more interactivity, is generating greater ROI for advertisers. It’s not to do with one format or another.
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What percentage of rich media ads would you describe as intrusive? Do you proactively offer guidance to advertisers that choose ad formats that are bad for the end user?
Fewer and fewer. Floating ads are used less but also more creatively. The end game now is increasingly to engage with intrusive ads, not to slap users in the face. Many advertisers have already learnt that intrusive advertising can only work if there is a big pay off for the consumer – whether that’s a well targeted, humorous or thought-provoking creative or whether it offers unique video or audio content etc.
We run education days for our clients at Eyeblaster and by partnering events with leading publishers such as MSN and Yahoo in order to offer best practice guidance. Rich media was a novelty five years ago; now it’s the norm. That has come about because companies such as Eyeblaster are committed not only to the development of the creative and ad-serving technology, but because we’ve helped develop the best practice, education and regulatory sides too.
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Isn’t it a shame that rich media is being used to interrupt the user experience? Isn’t ‘Advertising 2.0’ supposed to be about targeting, context and relevance?
Rich media should deliver a positive user experience. Rich media only interrupts an existing user experience when it is poorly targeted, created and delivered.
The best rich media invites the user to engage and rewards him or her for doing so. The rise of broadband, technology, advertising file sizes, ad features (data capture, polling, behavioural, interactive video, live data feeds) and creative agency experience is all combining to deliver interactive ads that complement user experience.
If you think about it, a click through is the most interruptive experience of all. So a significant number of ads are now being made which don’t use a click through as a primary objective or gauge of success.
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Do you have any examples of great rich media campaigns that worked well from a branding perspective?
Online display advertising, rich media in particular, has provided some excellent results for thousands of advertisers. Many of these use rich media as a brand response tool because of the interactivity, creative and technology that can be employed in delivering campaigns.
From allowing consumers to remix an Adidas TV commercial and build their own edit – which saw almost one in 2 people interact – to an advergame for IBM that saw thousands of strangers play a 2-way game of tennis in a banner – the success stories are legion.
We are seeing a high number of brand response campaigns amongst the tens of thousands launched every year.
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In terms of planning, do you have any insight on when online advertising should be used during a multichannel campaign?
Online advertising should be used when and in a way that best complements the objectives of the campaign.
For integrated marketing campaigns, online advertising has a unique list of features from behavioural, datacapture, polling, interactivity, etc that can be suitably employed to maximise the impact of the medium whilst complementing the other channels. It all comes down to the campaign, the objectives and the creative.
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What other ad formats are currently popular among advertisers?
Expandable banners are once again growing in popularity. They are certainly the most versatile format in that they are perhaps best set up to deliver both branding and response.
Branding can come from the initial expansion or auto-expansion. And with a combination of broadband connectivity, publisher file sizes and growing creative agency confidence, advertisers are able to ‘push’ much more content into the ad space.
In fact, we have seen many examples over the last 12 months of microsites working within the ad. So for a car manufacturer, that means including all the features and video of your car with the ability to order a brochure and book a test drive. The same can be said of all other verticals and that is why the expandable banner is the most used format.
In-stream is also growing. It is a better video advertising experience and more guaranteed value for the advertiser. Gaming is also on the rise.
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Do you have any examples of rich media ads that have been used instead of microsites?
Yes, this approach has been on the increase throughout the last 12 months and with good reason. Advertisers are realising that 99% of users don’t want to click, but it doesn’t mean they can’ be engaged. Instead, pushing assets from a microsite into the banner in a way that suits consumers is proving successful. This also negates the 20% plus drop-off rate that comes with any click through.
We’ve found entertainment, technology and automotive the biggest adopters of in-banner microsites to date. But other verticals are following suit – from travel/route planners in the banners to custom-made food recipes, the possibilities for engagement through in-banner microsites are endless, and made realistic by using many if not all existing assets from a microsite or website.
