Blog

We’ve all watched poorly concepted flash banners, and wondered ‘Who would ever click on that?’  Now, new research suggests that simple Flash may not even create the brand favorability compared to its more advanced online ad brethren. 

DoubleClick just released research contrasting the effects of Rich Media, Video, Simple Flash, and static (JPEG, PNG, or GIF) online ads. Their findings finally put numbers behind ad agencies’ assertion that rich media would garner a more favorable brand experience. It also surprised many by putting Simple Flash banners at the bottom of the choices for many of the criteria. Currently, Simple Flash accounts for 55% of the online ad landscape with Rich Media (with or without video) only holding 6%, and static ads comprising the remaining 39%. 

One can assume there are several reasons for the tendency toward traditional flash banners. 
• One would be technological inertia, or simply put, what marketing managers know.
• Another is certainly the support for rich media which generally incurs additional costs for displaying the ads, if the host site allows them at all. In my time creating ads for web, that’s been one hurdle that has been very difficult to overcome. The majority of the lower-cost sites on which to advertise have restrictions as to the technology to be used.
• Finally, there’s the up-front cost of video and rich media ad production. Which, while appearing daunting, generally pales in comparison to the media placement buy.

Despite the many obstacles, many larger advertisers have already begun to trend toward the new technology. The Online Publishers Association has already recognized several larger banner ad standards. The IAB has yet to embrace larger, more potentially intrusive, ad sizes; meanwhile doing extensive research into the best methods for effective video deployment.  In fact, Rich Media with Video ranked dramatically higher than the rest, in promoting purchase intent and brand favorability.

So, to you marketing managers out there, consider this a plea. Let’s embrace video and rich media when possible, and test the waters with some of the newer technologies out there. Once you see the ROI, I think you’ll be favorably surprised.

See DoubleClick’s full whitepaper here