Publishers, agencies, and marketers have two months in which to register their opinions and feedback on proposed guidelines for rich media ad units put forward by the Interactive Advertising
Bureau's (IAB) Rich Media Task Force.
The IAB issued the call for feedback on Tuesday during its third annual Leadership Forum. The proposed guidelines are for over-the-page rich media units,
which include expandable over-the-page, between-pages, and in-stream units. The guidelines were brainstormed in order to help streamline and speed the process of creating, planning, and buying
online media. Rich media advertising, enabled by ad technologies from providers including Eyeblaster, PointRoll, and Unicast, is widely regarded as a key factor in the comeback of online
advertising and future growth in the segment.
Research conducted by the Rich Media Task Force found that a consumer's ability to control a rich media ad was critically important. The use of rich
media by online publishers grew from 3 percent in 2002 to 8 percent in 2003, and accounted for 10 percent of all ad formats used in the fourth quarter of 2003, according to the 2004
IAB/PricewaterhouseCoopers Internet Ad Revenue Report. Rich media ads have also been proven to increase purchase intent among consumers, according to research by Dynamic Logic, a research
consultancy that tracks the effectiveness of brand advertising online.
In addition, consumers are believed to spend more time engaging with rich media ads. For example, the average display time
for a rich media ad unit is 85 seconds (based on DoubleClick inventory) and the average time spent interacting with the ad is 30 seconds, according to DoubleClick's DART Motif Data for the first
quarter. The 30-second time period is a key metric, as it is a standard for TV advertising.
Key highlights of the proposed guidelines:
*All audio must be user-initiated, with the exception
of ads that run in a context where the user has already accepted audio (i.e. an ad that runs during a user initiated movie trailer containing audio.)
*All ads must offer a "close box" or
"skip-ad" button (specifics vary by ad).
*Animation can run for no longer than 15 seconds for within-the-page and over-the-page ads, and no longer than 30 seconds for between-pages and
in-stream ads.
The IAB and its Rich Media Task Force came up with the proposed guidelines after reviewing consumer and ad effectiveness research, polling marketers and more than 20 agencies to
determine their particular needs. Publisher and technology provider requirements were also major considerations.
The Rich Media Task Force is chaired by David Shen, vice president, International
Products, Yahoo!. The Research subcommittee is chaired by Mike Hurt, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN. Among the participating companies: 24/7 RealMedia, About, Inc., Advertising.com, CBS MarketWatch.com,
Eyeblaster, EyeWonder, Falk North America, Unicast, Univision, USAToday.com, ValueClick, The Walt Disney Internet Group, and Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.
For more information about the
guidelines and the feedback survey, go to www.iab.net/standards/richmediafeedback.asp.