Fat or Flat: The Value of Rich Media

(response to ‘Rich Media’s Uncertain Value’)

When it comes to metrics, it’s not about interaction rate, brand time and other ad unit data in a vacuum. Instead, it’s about the relationship between creative and media and how they unite to drive the campaign strategy overall. New media models, RTB and targeting capabilities have enabled us to more efficiently and effectively  reach the right audience, but once found, creative and interactive, richer formats inspire that audience to action – and conversion.

As Ari Paparo of Appnexus pointed out in his blogpost Making Rich Media Scale and alluded to in a recent DigiDay article Rich Media’s Uncertain Value “very little research has been done to prove that these expensive, highly customized [rich media] ads are actually more effective than simpler Flash creatives” and rich media standards are sorely needed to scale in the RTB marketplace. One could see the position as a reflection of RTB technology limitations manifesting as a condemnation of rich media, but it’s no secret that new media models have created technical challenges.  As pointed out in this ClickZ article from PointRoll’s CEO Rob Gatto, the technology is getting resolved to meet the brand and consumer need for high quality, high impact and more effective rich formats in the RTB ecosystem.

Further, rich media just plain works. Here’s some research to back it up (email me if you want even more).

• May 2011: Lotame finds that campaigns featuring expandable rich media ads performed best with a 34.4% lift in likelihood to recommend a product, versus 25.1% for pre-roll and 10.9% flash-only campaigns.
• August 2011: IAB UK rich media mobile effectiveness study saw that those exposed to mobile expandable banners were 25% more likely to remember the advertising than those who saw the static banners
• March 2011:  Ad sales lift among exposed households was found to be 3X higher for expandable rich media ads than for standard non-expanding flash ads, even though the average frequency on the standard ads was 75% higher. “We see one of the best ROIs from this vehicle.” Shelly Nelson, director of connections strategy and media for SuperValu

Paparo mentions in his blog that “rich media won’t run in RTB” but rich media does run in RTB and at SCALE. We have been running successful live campaigns for quite some time and leveraging multiple DSP’s and multiple SSP/Exchange inventory sources and have seen significant click through performance lift of 208% with rich expandables versus standard flash plus added rich metrics with interaction rates of over 4% and sub 10% default delivery. We also work closely with folks like ContextWeb who have rich media default rates in the single digits across their biddable inventory. The “expandable acceptance limitations in the RTB environment” challenge is fast becoming moot.

The targeting capabilities and effectiveness of RTB are clear; and better quality inventory is also becoming available. BUT without quality creative and engaging ad formats it does not achieve maximum impact or efficiency. It would be a shame if RTB could provide the superior buying mechanics that Paparo talks about, coupled with quality, non-remnant inventory, but restricts advertisers to flat banners that don’t encourage engagement. You’ve found your audience – and for the most effective media spend – but you aren’t delivering relevant and action-inspiring content, offers, videos, polls, etc. to close the deal and get to a true return on spend. And what if your goal as the advertiser is data collection or another KPI that can be performed in banner?

If as Paparo says, the RTB technology is becoming less fragmented and more simple/streamlined then there should be no challenge in accommodating rich media. A failure to enable rich media should be seen as a failure on the part of the technology platform within RTB and not rich media itself. The good news as mentioned above, many platforms can successfully support rich media and even make future media targeting decisions based on interactions users make within the rich banner. Takes it from just delivering the right ad, to the right consumer at the right time and layers in inspiring the right action at the right price. And I do agree with Ari on homepages and predict we’ll see homepage takeovers and more premium high impact placements as they make their way to marketplaces, private exchanges.

What was most interesting to me in Paparo’s post was the assertion that “virtually no standards have emerged to govern the delivery, reporting, or effectiveness of these creatives.” I’ve illustrated with the research above the effectiveness point and along with Dynamic Logic, Insight Express, Nielsen, comScore and countless others who would argue that there are common methodologies. And, when it comes to delivery standards citing ORMMA and VPAID/VAST compliance can be confusing. The need for VAST, VPAID and even ORMMA are due to extraordinary fragmentation in players and phone operating systems. The beauty of flash and HTML5 is that designers are all able to build a way to scale rich solutions (that operate within  these standards) and build high quality digital creative with artistic license.

We shouldn’t commoditize providers as different creative toolsets offer different capabilities. Many guidelines and standards on formats, site acceptance, and methodology (MRC) exist and are followed today.  For example, the IAB has had rich media format standards for years – expandables, polites, pre-expanded, dynamic creative, in banner video are all standards. In fact, PointRoll hasn’t used “Fatboy” in several years in an effort to follow the standard term for simplicity and understanding across providers. But like Bandaid, QTip and Kleenex it’s still in the digital lexicon. As initiatives like the IAB Rising Stars illustrate, there is even more of a desire from brands and agencies to get creative with rich capabilities and formats like the slider and billboard, which will soon enter the lexicon as standards.

I do think there is some merit in exploring reporting standards, but all should not be the same. Much like Appnexus has proprietary and differentiating algorithms than other SSPs, it’s important to enable rich media providers to provide differentiating metrics and performance measurement capabilities. Methodology for standard metrics such as interaction rate and brand time calculations could be valuable, but leave room for innovation and differentiation. Advertisers are not comparing DoubleClick’s interaction rate to PointRoll’s to determine performance, they’re comparing their campaign performance against their provider’s benchmark. More importantly,  savvy marketers are not looking at  ad unit data in a vacuum, but how the ad format and creative performance metrics in combination with their messaging and media unite to drive return on a specific KPI, sales, leads, etc.

What we all have to remember on the  ad technology side is that it’s not the technology that drives effective advertising, it’s the marketing strategy in combination with the tools and technology we provide. We’re the enablers. When it comes to planning, creation, delivery, and reporting we have to solve the limitations and deliver value for advertisers and agencies. Many use ad technology jargon, metrics and complexity as a badge to alienate advertisers and agencies into following their lead,  but advertisers and agencies are smart; ad tech companies that simplify, solve and create a win for all will lead.