• by Ken Liebeskind , June 27, 2002

Rich media is twice as effective as gif/jpg campaigns in lifting a key brand metric: message association.

That from a new Dynamic Logic report based on studies of several different publishers, advertisers and agencies.

The report, based on more than 300,000 consumer interviews, found that rich media provides a message association lift among 44% of the subjects, compared with 21% for gif/jpg. The rich media used in the study included Unicast Superstitials and a variety of DHTML formats, such as Eyeblaster, Shoshkeles, Eyewonder and Klipmart.

Dynamic Logic says that gif/jpgs “still work, but rich media may be more cost effective in the end."

The study was based on Dynamic Logic research of ads that appeared on major sites like ESPN.com, NYTimes.com and MSN.com, for advertisers such as Citibank, Miller Brewing Co., Kimberly-Clark and Proctor & Gamble. The ad were created and placed by Tribal DDB, J. Walter Thomspon and Young & Rubicam.

The research found proof of lifts in message association among people who had been exposed to the ads and those who hadn't, with consumers asked to match brand messages with the advertised products. This is a standard way to test for brand metrics that "isolates the effect of the lift," according to Molly Hislop, Dynamic Logic’s VP of research services.

The findings of the study were supported by Adam Gerber, vice president director of media strategy for The Digital Edge, who says there are now "volumes of research indicating that rich media offers a substantial increase in brand communication ability on the Web. It should help justify a continued reinvention of online advertising."

The Dynamic Logic study follows others that have chronicled the branding impact of rich media, including one by DoubleClick that showed the click through rates for rich media ads are six times higher than that for standard online ads.