• by Dale Chaney , March 1, 2001

So far, rich media has gained only a toehold in the market, but the arrival of broadband may give it a boost.

Rich media, once figured as the next big wave in online advertising, has gained a toehold in the market—but research does not forecast a huge, immediate boom in its use. The Internet Advertising Bureau reports that rich media stayed steady at a bare 2 percent of the total online advertising pie from first through third quarter of 2000. This compares with a steady increase in, say, classifieds over the same period from 4 percent to 9 percent while interstitials—pop-ups—rose from 3 percent to 4 percent. (There was also a decline in banners from 52 percent of the total to 46 percent during the three quarters.)

“The IAB figures do not break out rich media by type—streaming video, streaming audio, or superstitials,” says Pete Petrusky, director of new media for PricewaterhouseCoopers, which conducts the research for the IAB reports. “What we know is that rich media—as an overall category—has not grown” and, Petrusky says, there’s no reason to anticipate a change in trend until we see change in bandwidth availability to consumers.

However, a recent study by The Yankee Group casts a somewhat more positive light on streaming media. In a series of 15-minute telephone interviews with 100 ad agency executives, half of whom represented interactive ad agencies, with the other half at traditional agencies, the study reveals that 61 percent of all respondents have recommended streaming media advertising to clients in the past 12 months. And, 65 percent of all respondents said they were likely to recommend streaming media to clients in the next 12 months.

On an even more bullish note, 47 percent of the respondents say clients who have not previously invested in streaming media advertisements will allocate dollars to streaming ads during the next 12 months.

But, despite such response, the promise of streaming media still carries a downside. According to the study, about half the agencies say that their clients see the medium as too expensive, untested, and unproven. For agencies not recommending streaming ads to clients, the number one reason against the medium is a perceived lack of consumer access to it.

“Once we get broadband into people’s homes, streaming ads will come up,” says Laura Mitrovich, program manager, Internet market strategies for The Yankee Group. “Brand advertisers will come to the net because streaming ads hit a familiar bone. People tend to see it as radio and television over the net. You can deliver a high-impact message with it.”

“Rich media is something the creative guys can get excited about,” says Marissa Gluck, senior analyst, Jupiter Research. “But, even though it’s part of the future, it’s not here today.”