• by Masha Geller , June 9, 2003

Back in October, DoubleClick formed a strategic partnership with Macromedia. Yesterday, the companies put that partnership to the test. DoubleClick has announced that more than 30 advertisers, agencies, and web publishers, including MSN, Modem Media, Mass Transit Interactive, Moxie Interactive and Freeserve, a UK portal, have agreed to take part in the global beta program for a new rich media advertising product that resulted from the partnership.

The product is an integrated rich media solution, which is scheduled to be released in the U.S. in July 2003 and in Europe and Asia in September 2003. Company officials say it will allow web publishers, advertisers and agencies to simplify the process of creating, trafficking and reporting on rich media advertisements.

"We're looking forward to testing DoubleClick's latest technology," said Tom Beeby, Vice President & Executive Creative Director, Modem Media. "We're hopeful it will provide a more efficient means of creative execution, and a better, more consolidated rich media reporting structure. The partnership between DoubleClick and Macromedia should enable us to deliver greater value to our clients."

The integrated solution, which will contain trafficking, multi-event reporting, will both help the industry get closer to the standards it needs, and reduce the number of steps and applications required to deploy rich media. To achieve this, DoubleClick's DART technology has been integrated with Macromedia Flash MX software, which will provide advertisers with a dramatically simplified, cost-effective process to create, traffic, and report on rich media ads.

"This solution will allow us to execute rich media in a much more efficient way," said Jason Heller, CEO, Mass Transit Interactive. "The creation of ads and the ease of trafficking will help us to increase efficiency, reduce errors and increase the return on investment in rich media for our clients."

Macromedia Flash MX is the solution for developing highly visual interactive content and applications that deliver breakthrough experiences with significant return on investment. "This innovative new tool will allow publishers to be more creative with their ad formats," said Ken Parnham, Technical Manager, Freeserve. "The ability to facilitate the process of rich media creation will eliminate the scope of error and will lead DoubleClick to become the essential technology for rich media campaign delivery & creation."

According to DoubleClick's Q1 2003 Ad Serving Trend Report, rich media continues to increase in usage, with 28%of all ads served being rich media formats, compared to 17% in Q1 2002. Flash is the most common type of application used to create rich media ads, accounting for 12% of DoubleClick's total volume. In addition, rich media has proven to generate higher rates of post impression activity per impression (.78% vs. .41% for non-rich media).