Commentary

Just an Online Minute... Standardizing Rich Media

Ever since Unicast decided to take it upon itself to put out standards for rich media advertising a few weeks ago, I’ve been stewing over whether it’s a good idea. Apparently, I’m not the only one. Zachary Rodgers, the Associate Editor of TurboAds.com, wrote a terrific piece on the same subject yesterday, titled, “Are Rich Media Standards a Mistake?”

Here’s the dilemma. On one hand, standardizing rich media formats could definitely make it easier for publishers and advertisers to deal with rich media – less time wasted on configuring websites to accept rich media ads, negotiating licensing fees, producing different creatives for different sites, etc. On the other hand, as Rodgers so eloquently put it, at a time when the Web's biggest publishing players are finally beginning to embrace the full array of rich media technologies available, “is it time to reduce the palette to a few standardized formats?”

According to Unicast announcements (which seem to hit the newswires and reporters’ inboxes with maddening frequency lately, but that’s another story,) standards are the missing puzzle piece in making it easier for advertisers to put more money into the Internet. And as one media director told me last week, it was time for someone to just put their foot down and say, “Here’s the standard. Stop complaining and move on from here.”

The thing is, that someone should have been unbiased. I’m not naïve enough to hope an industry association would actually step in and help any time soon, so isn’t the next logical solution collaboration between the rich media vendors, advertisers and the publishers? Unicast, being the 800-pound gorilla in the rich media field, doesn’t sound all that altruistic when they push industry-wide acceptance of its own product. Where are the other rich media vendors, like Eyeblaster or Eyewonder, for example? Shouldn’t they be present?

Would some form of standards be a good step forward for the industry? Absolutely! Is Unicast to be commended for standardizing its own suite of products? Yes! Is it up to them to limit and define acceptable rich media standards industry-wide? I do have enough faith in this business to know that the market is the only force strong enough to dictate that.

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