The executive VP of business development discusses challenges and opportunities advertisers and agencies face with regard to rich media and online video.
Recently, we chatted with Burke Scott, vice president of channel development for EyeWonder, about how publishers currently are using rich media and video ad formats, and to get his view of the future. To round out the perspective, we also talked with Michael Griffin, vice president of business development for EyeWonder. Here are his views.
iMedia: Rich media has been around for over five years now, and EyeWonder has been offering video ads since 2000 as well. How would you characterize the current level of adoption of rich media among agencies and advertisers as we near the end of 2005?
Michael Griffin: Agencies and advertisers these days basically fall into two groups: those who are true converts to rich media and use it for a large portion of their campaigns, and, believe it or not, those that still really haven’t taken advantage of it at all.
For those looking at using it for the first time, our job is to first show them just what marketing objectives rich media ads can help deliver. Once they start to grasp the potential of video, interactivity and reward all in an online ad unit, and realize the ROI metrics, they are in and ready to go.
It is important that their first rich media campaigns clearly meet or exceed all of their expectations. We spend a lot of time understanding their business and their marketing objectives. With our five years of video and rich media ad experience, we can then consult with them to design the ad units to best accomplish exactly what they’re trying to achieve, optimizing the creative to drive specific actions.
When the campaign goes live, our online reporting system allows them to track and measure the overall performance of their rich media campaign and its success across the specific objectives they pre-defined up-front. It also allows EyeWonder to work with clients to fine-tune the campaign along the way for optimal performance. This allows them to really evaluate the performance of their online campaign at a level that matters most to them -- branding, direct response or any combination.
iMedia: And what about those agencies that are already using rich media -- what are their needs?
Griffin: These agencies and advertisers tend to pride themselves on being the more progressive and innovative ones. Now that the promise of broadband is here, these shops are really looking to push the envelope and challenge the limits of rich media. We love that! They want to deliver better results for their clients than previously attainable.
At EyeWonder, we pride ourselves on giving these shops the latest and greatest video and rich media ad features and formats that really let them push the creative envelope. We take a hands-on approach to campaign design -- we don’t tie them down to a platform that constricts their options from the get go. We also work with sites to ensure that they accept our latest cutting edge formats, like our Video RoadBlock solution launched last month, so that there’s no excuse for agencies to limit themselves creatively at all. In fact, these outside-the-box campaigns are the ones that typically generate the best results. We win when our clients win, so we encourage them to really use our products and services to their fullest advantage.
iMedia: What are the latest opportunities facing advertisers and agencies with regard to rich media?
Griffin: Rich media today can and should be used as a very powerful marketing tool, not only on the campaign delivery side but also on the strategic and creation side. The data that comes back can help brand marketers systematically hone their messages to best fit audience needs. For example, which component of the ad delivered the highest interaction with key brand attributes? Was it clicking on a coupon, downloading a screensaver or instant message icon, signing up for a brand loyalty program…? What are the core messages consumers are most interested in? Let’s build subsequent campaigns that capitalize on the knowledge gained from previous campaigns.
Also rich media can be used to identify and target the “viral brand evangelists” -- the key external drivers that grow every brand. How do we best reach them and what tools does the online ad give them to help them spread the word? Viral features like email or IM to a friend can be very effective in getting your message out to extended audiences. Of course, EyeWonder can track and measure the success of all the viral components of the campaign to a very deep level.
iMedia: Since you were part of the founding team at EyeWonder over five years ago, can you give us your perspective on the evolution of the industry and of your company? What have you seen in the past five years?
Griffin: Sure. Our mission from the start has been simple: always enable advertisers and agencies to deliver the most compelling campaigns to their most desirable audiences. Back in 2000 when we introduced our Instant Play Video Ads, they were among the first video ads on the internet that worked regardless of whether or not the user had a video player installed on their computer. That technology was based on Java.
After Macromedia’s launch of Flash and Flash video, we carefully monitored its adoption rate. As we saw it aiming to overtake the reach of Java, we proactively reworked our platform and process to feature Flash video exclusively, which actually surpassed the reach of Java at almost exactly the same time we made the switch (April of this year). Since then, every new EyeWonder video ad campaign has relied on Flash video.
Another major change is also now complete at EyeWonder. For a long time we focused specifically on the video ad portion of online campaigns, and our customers who loved us for video ads were forced to go elsewhere for the non-video part of their campaigns. In August, we rolled out a new line of non-video Rich Media ad products and services, including our new Interactive Banner Ad and our EyeWonder Expandable Ad, which means that agencies and advertisers can now rely on us for their entire rich media campaigns. These ads are also becoming more interactive as advertisers and agencies take advantage of all that is possible online.
iMedia: What's on the horizon for rich media suppliers?
Griffin: One of our hottest initiatives now is mobile marketing -- we are going to see explosive growth in mobile in the next year. As audiences spend more time on their cell phones and PDAs, how can advertisers take their online campaigns and extend them to reach people when they’re on the go? One of our coolest new ideas is our set SMS Mobile Marketing features, which enable audiences to forward reminders and updates from online ads directly to their cell phones, or to their friends’. This can be a very powerful viral feature.
Also, in-stream advertising is still in diapers right now -- we want to nurture and raise it to become a viable and profitable part of online campaigns. In-stream should extend well beyond just repurposing TV spots into an online video player. EyeWonder will add interactivity on top of it: hot-spotting, click commands and other features that distance it further from the one-way, passive nature of TV. There is no reason why in-stream shouldn’t be as robust and interactive as in-page rich media. EyeWonder is dedicated to making that happen.
iMedia: How would you summarize the state of rich media and online video advertising today?
Griffin: It’s important to note that rich media is still in its infancy. Sometimes in the industry we take it for granted that everyone understands the power of rich media and is using it on every campaign. We encounter agencies and advertisers all the time who fall into that first group I talked about, those who are really just investigating it for the first time.
Major advertisers can no longer ignore the trends. Their most desirable audiences are no longer plopped in front of the TV every night watching broadcast TV -- they’re spending much more time online. Broadband is now in about 55 percent of U.S. homes, and this connectivity makes the web an even more powerful ad medium than TV. Rich media ads deliver two-way communication with customers, and encourage customer feedback and interaction with the brand that you can’t get from any other ad medium.
So the question for major advertisers moving online is how to make best use of all ad options, formats, features and placements available to them. Technology is one thing, but providing the consultation and service that enables customers to best take advantage of new technology is what really matters. The bottom line results have to be there, and campaigns that perform best are the ones that were designed to use the full power of video, rich media and interactivity together to accomplish specific objectives. EyeWonder is proud to help advertisers and agencies deliver the results they need on every rich media ad campaign. That’s what keeps our customers coming back.