Multiple Screens Force Ad Industry To Revamp Rich Media Ads

by Laurie Sullivan , March 6, 2013

Watching-Tablet-TV-A4 Some 51% of ad agencies have seen an increase in demand for dynamic rich media ads, while another 20% expect to see more interest from clients in 2013. But the process, which remains riddled with roadblocks, needs to be reworked.

About 88% of companies participating in the Jivox study call the process stressful-to-very stressful when it comes to executing rich media campaigns using today's processes. Of those running rich media campaigns across multiple screens and devices, 42% call it painful.

The Web browsers on mobile and desktop need to be more in sync, since technology determines the behavior of content and ads, according to Diaz Nesamoney, CEO and founder of Jivox. He says that more time is needed to bring them together: "This is one reason it's become significantly more complex."

Nesamoney said the industry needs to reinvent the business of creating and serving rich media to meet new technological demands, such as having the ability to run the same ads across different operating systems and browsers.

Half estimate the average time to complete a rich media creative ad at one to two weeks, while 40% said it takes longer than three weeks. Some 66% would recommend more rich media campaigns if production times and cost were halved.

About 31% said they almost always experience delays in campaigns due to last-minute creative changes or rich media ad production, and 62% said they sometimes experienced delays. Out of the 5% not running rich media campaigns, half call them expensive and cumbersome.

The survey supports responses spanning three weeks from more than 100 participants at 25 agencies such as BBDO, Digitas, MEC Global, Mindshare, MediaCom, Omnicom Group, Razorfish, Starcom MediaVest, Zenith Optimedia and 360i.

Experts believe touchscreens will prompt the increase in rich media, dynamic interactive ads that allow consumers to find information about products and services where the data is based on preference, browsing history and more.

cross-platform, mobile, rich media advertising, technology

19 comments about "Multiple Screens Force Ad Industry To Revamp Rich Media Ads".

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Catherine Spurway from PointRoll, March 7, 2013 at 10:29 a.m.
Agree, this has been a challenge for the industry. PointRoll has worked aggressively with leading agencies and publishers over the past year to more quickly and easily deliver multi-screen advertising. From interactive in-stream video and mobile/tablet to desktop rich media and additional screens like digital OOH and ConnectedTV, PointRoll provides both self and full-service support enabling the delivery, management and measurement of multi-screen campaigns. PointRoll’s most recent development, Composer Ad Building, allows anyone to easily build and output interactive, multi-device display ads in both Flash & HTML5 via a single intelligent tag – without using Flash authoring software & without writing a single line of code, which is valuable for both designers and developers who want to dramatically cut production time.
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doug mcgoldrick from doug mcgoldrick photo, March 7, 2013 at 10:45 a.m.

I don't think it's just because I'm a photographer but, when I'm online and a short video or rich media ad comes up it seems like an intrusion and I click out as fast as I can, however if it's just a still image with a headline or pure graphic ad that comes up as a page is loading I don't mind it so much. The still doesn't take up my time up while the rich ad feels like it's wasting my 30 seconds to a minute. Even though they both maybe on screen for the same amount of time. I think agencies like rich ads since they can tell clients hey look people are using the ad so it makes good research, but from a consumer point of view they don't want to bothered to do anything.

Joshua Rex from AP, March 7, 2013 at 11:15 a.m.

Great article and very timely....

4 years ago we introduced the OPEN IMU - a display media format that transforms static ads into intelligent content channels. The OPEN IMU soon established itself as the market leading display media format. Built in Flash, we recognised the need to enable seamless delivery of ad formats cross screen / device (Desktop, Mobile, Tablet, Smart TV, DIgital OOH etc).

We have since redeveloped the platform in JavaScript to enable this. The OPEN Media Port facilities drag and drop ad creation - with no coding required. Our clients are now delivering 1 dynamic creative to all operating systems and browsers seamlessly. Intelligent content delivery allows brand and performance campaign KPIs to be fulfilled under 1 creative and 'metrics that matter' reporting layers provide real-time insight into 'what content works where'.

It's still an uphill struggle given the fragmentation in the industry, particularly with respect to mobile. But solutions are at hand and it's up to us to get the industry to jump on board.

thisisopen.com

*Quietly Redefining Ad Space*

Aj Vernet from Rey , March 7, 2013 at 11:41 a.m.

I love this article as its spot on this is a major problem in our industry and one my new company Republic Project is trying to solve! Republic Project is now offering a platform that allows advertisers and publishers the flexibility to easily create and change campaigns to meet real-time needs of their consumers across all digital touch-points: Mobile, Online, and Social Media. They do all of this in a quarter of the time that it takes other platforms or vendors.

Jim Rowan from Liqwid, March 7, 2013 at 1:09 p.m.

I agree that this article is spot on. Scaling highly creative, rich media content to fit dynamically created space by the user such as in the Windows 8 touchable environment is going to become more and more the trend. It is not as simple as just using responsive ads. The responsive ad must be able to reconfigure the creative elements to fit any space, particularly when the size and location of the space can change with user interaction and particular devices. In addition, responsive web sites are becoming more and more relevant since the mobile audience viewing experience is far superior. Liqwid, with its single Liqwid ad unit and a single tag for all ad deliveries on a web page, delivers such responsive ads to fixed or responsive web sites to any device, os, or space and is fully compatible with Windows 8 and its touchable environment. We believe that a single ad unit that can go anywhere on any device and do it with a simple point and click dashboard is a great solution. This approach cuts down on the time and effort and ad ops is massively reduced. By using HTML5, we overcome the limitations of Flash and incorporate videos, games, apps, e-commerce and social media easily. And, the creative can be updated instantly.

Eric Conn from Leverege, March 7, 2013 at 1:36 p.m.

In addition to providing tools and frameworks that enable dynamic rich media ads to be created and A/B tested more efficiently, we've found that offering rich media ads on a cost-per-engagement (CPE) basis in addition to the standard CPC or CPM method better aligns all of the parties involved and rewards performance. Our proprietary ad units are seeing engagement rates exceeding 20% and can be created in hours using our technology.

Srini Dharmaji from GoldSpot Media, March 7, 2013 at 2:34 p.m.

GoldSpot Media is leading the industry with super cool multi-screen rich media and video ad formats. Check out http://gallery.goldspotmedia.com from any digital device.

Advertisers can now follow the user across every digital screen using our platform, and optimize budgets and creative in real time across better performing screens.

We make single media buy possible today - one tag, one report, one buy - all screens !

Darwon Choe from Spongecell, March 7, 2013 at 3:59 p.m.

I completely agree. It’s why we built our business around giving advertisers and agencies the interactive functionality of rich media minus the time and expense. But the article does bring up a broader point—as devices and formats proliferate, complexity increases. Ad tech companies need to give advertisers the reach of these new avenues but with none of the redundancy.

David Christensen from Spongecell, March 7, 2013 at 4:13 p.m.

The content of this article would be very different if more people were using Spongecell (we are new and growing). Our solution is integrated with the major adservers so you just traffic as you normally would and we can run on any website. AND we turn most campaigns around in three days or less.

Daniel Green from RevJet, March 7, 2013 at 4:41 p.m.

It's a sad commentary that 99% of these comments are from Rich Media companies pitching their business. I would hope that these message boards would be more about dialogue rather than a sales pitch. I'm from Jivox, the company that conducted the study. It's in all our best interest to listen to our customers rather than talking at them. That was the intent of this study which we hope sheds a broader light on the difficulties of the rich media production process in an increasingly multi-screen environment.

Ruby Gottlieb from The Media Advisory, March 7, 2013 at 5:53 p.m.

@Daniel Green -- I was just going to comment that myself. And are you the Daniel Green I used to work with from Avantgo (a flash from the past if ever there was one!)

Jim Rowan from Liqwid, March 7, 2013 at 5:57 p.m.

Point well taken. I think we can agree that customers are looking for simplicity, effective and cross-device capability, with very detailed reporting and targeting capabilities. It is good to see so many trying to bring those attributes to the market. In the end, the market will decide what works best.

Catherine Spurway from PointRoll, March 7, 2013 at 6:02 p.m.

RE: Daniel
I don't think it is sad at all. We are hearing these concerns and not just listening, but working with clients on solutions. With rapid innovation comes complexity and it's incumbent upon the technology providers to solve for "the process, which remains riddled with roadblocks, to be reworked." In the context of these comments, folks are simply demonstrating how we're each working to "revamp rich media" as the title states.

Aj Vernet from Rey , March 7, 2013 at 11:48 p.m.

@Daniel Green Whats sad is your comment and attitude towards your peers! This is why this industry takes so long to innovate because people dont collaborate enough. I love your study and the results it provided but think that through true collaboration with peers we can all advance this area of dynamic creative to a wonderful place. Its true customers dictate solutions but imagine if we all talked and maybe put a few standardization or best practices in place for multiplatform rich media? If more of us had a place to chat and talk I believe this arena would evolve even quicker. Bring on the pitches I think they are kind of inspring!

Srini Dharmaji from GoldSpot Media, March 8, 2013 at 12:04 a.m.

@ Daniel Green - Your CEO made a valid point, that it is very complex to create multi platform rich media ads. You are assuming that rich media companies are doing a sales pitch here, but the fact is innovative companies like GoldSpot have solved this problem and have advanced into dynamic optimization of rich media ad budgets across better performing screens. We have also addressed device attribution across screens and dynamic creative based on performance per screen. GoldSpot has delivered several multi screen rich media campaigns for our top brand customers, and are doing agency wide presentations to digital strategists and media planners on the benefits of a single rich media buy across digital. While you are listening to customers to improve your product (which we also did some time back), we are delivering multi screen rich media to our customers. Just that we are ahead of the curve when compared to our competitors.

Mark Mclaughlin from McLaughlin Strategy, March 8, 2013 at 2:53 p.m.

It is not just the challenge of multiple browsers and devices - the more sophisticated the ad unit becomes and the greater the use of rich media, the more work is required with individual publishers.

Marketers tell me they want more sophisticated ads because they want to run BRAND advertising where engagement is a key metric. Publishers tell me they want to be closely involved when the ad units are complex even if they are "standard" IAB rising star units. Agencies tell me they are caught in the middle between pressure from client's to run these ads and pressure to control the growing cost of operations.

The only solutions provider I have found who provides the software and the HUMAN services required to make everybody happy is Centro. Does anyone know another company that is doing what Centro does to get the operations off of the agency's desk?

Jim Rowan from Liqwid, March 8, 2013 at 3:03 p.m.

Mark Mclaughin. Liqwid does it with one single ad unit that goes to any placement location, any size and any device. And one single tag controls all of it with our dashboard. I will contact you separately.

Daniel Green from RevJet, March 8, 2013 at 4:16 p.m.

Hey Ruby- It's good to see a real interactive media veteran on here. Avantgo was truly the "old days." Maybe too ahead of it's time?

Hello Cat- Hope all is good at Pointroll.

You guys are all still pitching your business. We're in the advertising industry and I think most media and creative shops are kind of past the hype. We all say we can do it all. Unless there is one person here from a rich media company ready to post what their platform can not do or is lacking. Something core and important to rich media advertising. The only real way to know the difference is to run a test. Have a fairly complicated creative that is suppose to run across multiple formats (may I suggest A few IAB Rising Star unis for mobile, display and video) as well as some standard rich media units and a custom interactive video unit (no templates guys) for good measure. Submit those assets to 5 or 6 rich media companies with 50 placements and see:
- Who turns around demo links the fastest.
- How accurate are the creatives in terms of look feel and functionality.
- How quickly can last minute changes be made from time the agency to requests them to the time they are live..across all units.
- Does the creative track properly across all screens.
- How long does it take to turn-around ad tags once creatives are approved for initial launch?

If you also have a self-service platform, you can play too- train up the agency and see how quickly they can do what needs to be done and how much they like it.

Of course, this would have to be done by a third-party and no one should know it's a test. Think of it as a benchmarking study. Perhaps, in the interest of science we get a few agencies to pitch in $20-30 grand to run a test. :) Perhaps Gartner or Forrester can arrange it?

Dave Rosowsky from Joystick Interactive, March 8, 2013 at 4:42 p.m.

Thanks to Jivox for providing the subject matter that has created this lively exchange. You can't blame the Pointrolls of the world for touting their achievements. Thanks to them, rich media has come quite a distance in a short period of time. There is no question rich media production has room for improvement. This falls not just on the technology solutions, many of whom have commented here, but also on the production shops, agencies, media planners, and the clients themselves. Personally, I think it is great to see how excited these technologies are about their achievements, some of which will surely push our industry to the next level.