• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 23, 2009

Rich media company EyeWonder and ad technology company Collective Media on Friday announced the formation of a strategic partnership to integrate EyeWonder's in-stream technology with Collective Media's display ad network.

The combined service is expected to offer media buying, delivery and reporting for online video advertising campaigns.

"The ability to 'create once, play anywhere' offered by EyeWonder's end-to-end in-stream solution is a benefit for both advertisers and publishers," said Jerome FitzGibbons, EVP of New York-based Collective Media.

The system, meanwhile, is designed for publishers to deliver any type of interactive in-stream ad format, including interactive overlays, from third-party rich media providers. It will also provide reporting features, including metrics on campaign interaction and engagement performance data.

The Seattle-based EyeWonder's open-standard Universal In-Stream Framework works with any ad-serving provider and supports players built in Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and Akamai's Media Framework.

The UIF also supports the IAB Video Ad Serving Template guidelines created to meet the need for standardization in the digital video advertising industry.

Ultimately, standardization across publishing sites is expected to lead to better monetization opportunities of video content with in-stream ad placements.

Rich media ads accounted for 7% of online advertising during the first half of 2008, according to a study conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.