According to a DoubleClick research report, The Evolution of Rich Media Advertising, “More advertisers than ever are using rich media to create cool ads that entertain, engage, educate and encourage product sales with online audiences.” Rich media accounts for 65% of all internet advertising inventory and is becoming more and more popular in online display advertising. There are many different reasons to start using rich media, and some clients at Booyah have started to take advantage of these complex creative experiences. For example, Ford created this rich media ad inviting consumers to customize their own Mustang:
The main reason to use rich media advertising is the high interaction rate it has with the consumers. These ads make the user interact or engage with the ad through video or other features that make potential customers click or roll over the ad.
Our client, Blockbuster, recently ran a rich media unit. The call to action on the ad was “Find a Store Near You.” When the customer clicked on the ad it brought them to a landing page of Blockbuster stores all located near the user. Rich media ads allow you to be able to link to several different landing pages including your social media pages, contact forms or in this case, the “Find a Store Near You” page.
Another reason why rich media is so successful is that they can include video. Video is becoming more and more relevant in online advertising today. Video helps gain engagement and could also have increased tracking. With video ads you can see how many people watched the video, or the percentage of video that’s viewed. Rich media also allows for more space to include display messaging for consumers to interact with the ad.
Rich media ads today are outperforming standard display ads. According Web Advantage, “Rich media ads can outperform standard and animated counterparts by 300 – 3000%.” Though rich media is generally more expensive, it is very much worth the investment.
