Advertising.com's SVP and GM of national sales walks us through how and why to use an ad network for your rich media campaign.

The potential power of rich media and video advertising has really never been in question -- they are predicted to be two of the most effective means of grabbing consumer attention online. According to a 2005 study conducted by Dynamic Logic and DoubleClick, rich media and video advertising are proven to lift all measures of brand metrics (including awareness, brand favorability and purchase intent) higher than traditional, static banners ads.

Rich media online can engage audiences at an emotional level once reserved for television alone, delivering clear increases in performance for both brand and direct-response advertising. And video is breaking out on its own and may well represent the future of online -- with online video spending projected to grow from approximately $200 million in 2005 to more than $1.5 billion in 2009.

Video advertising currently takes many forms, including: in-banner or in-page, pre-roll or in-stream, interstitial or transitional formats; user-initiated and polite flavors such as in- and out-of-banner, expandable and transitional ads and automatic formats like floating, auto-expandable and sound-enabled creatives.

Sound complicated? Well, it can be. And that's partly why it has taken so long for these formats to take hold.

The why of rich media and video is clear. It's the how that has been the problem. How can the industry make these complex formats simpler for publishers to handle and for marketers to buy? On top of the technological complexity and bandwidth issues, rich media and video inventory is simply hard to come by. It's incredibly difficult to achieve large reach; implementation costs and CPMs are high -- the list of hurdles goes on and on.

But there is hope on the horizon, thanks in part to broadband penetration and ad networks. Rich-media ad networks provide broader reach, targeting with scale, single-vendor management, lower costs and guaranteed inventory for rich-media and video campaigns. Today's marketers and publishers not only recognize the results rich media and video can garner, they also have new tools to include video and rich media with mainstream creative formats.

How networks make rich media practical

Volume. Rich-media ads not only boost overall brand impact, they are also proven to drive actions. According to DoubleClick, consumers are significantly more likely to make a purchase after viewing a rich-media ad than a non-rich media ad. But these results really come only when delivered in volume to a target audience.

By executing rich-media campaigns in a network environment, marketers are ensured a higher volume of impressions -- covering multiple verticals and millions of targeted visitors with billions of impressions if necessary. So, for example, you can get a celebrity spokesperson to endorse your product via video testimonial and deliver that message across a network to a massive audience within your desired demographic. Achieving that kind of reach is simply not time- or cost-effective on a site-by-site basis.

Simplicity. Buying rich media on a single-site basis means hand-picking publishers that can handle it. It requires managing multiple placements, multiple fees and multiple ad specifications and it limits the number of consumers that can be reached. Whether the inventory is actually available on the scale you need is another story.

But specialized sub-networks for rich-media and video impressions ensure guaranteed inventory while eliminating multi-buy headaches. There's just one fee, one standardized set of specs and one vendor relationship to manage. That aggregation alone can help reduce the overhead costs of rich-media advertising.

Cost. Administrative costs aside, rich-media and video campaigns tend to have a higher CPM rate compared to standard image. Network advertising, however, leverages economies of scale to lower advertiser costs -- thanks to the sheer volume of inventory the networks are able to purchase. Networks also keep serving fees low by maintaining preferred relationships with rich-media vendors.

Five ways to get more from rich media and video

1. Take advantage of networks. The more sites you cover with your advertising, the higher the potential response and revenue. By delivering rich-media and video campaigns across a network instead of making multiple single-site buys, you are ensured guaranteed placement, single-vendor administration and massive-yet-targeted reach. The networks have done the work for you, purchasing the format-friendly inventory and standardizing to one set of specs -- why reinvent the wheel?

2. Define your objectives. Even across a network, rich-media and video campaigns are more expensive and complex than standard advertising campaigns. So make the most of the spend. If your objective is awareness, be sure your brand is clearly represented and your target audience is being reached. If your objective is action, be sure you have a distinct landing page, making the conversion process as simple as possible and the navigation path to conversion a breeze. You're spending more money for this format, so pay attention to the basics.

3. Understand the technologies. While networks certainly simplify the placement process, rich-media and video formats remain technologically complex. It's important to understand both the creative and technological requirements for your ads. Work closely with your network to meet all required specifications, and things will go much more smoothly.

4. Know your target audience. Like any advertising, these complex formats are only effective if they reach the right audience and in sufficient volume. Again, ad networks can be the key to targeting with scale.

5. Leverage frequency caps. Rich-media and video ads are potent attention-grabbers, so going overboard can be disruptive to users. Leverage frequency caps (your network can provide expert guidance as to what caps work best for what format) to avoid annoying over-exposure. The reach available from an ad network means that even with caps, you can still achieve high-volume results.

Rich-media and video are likely to dominate the world of online advertising in the not-so-distant future. Thanks to the efficiencies of new rich media and video ad networks -- and with a little extra attention to fundamentals like targeting and goal-setting -- mainstream advertisers can get on board more easily than ever before.

Nada Stirratt serves as senior vice president and general manager of Advertising.com's national sales efforts. In this role, she oversees Advertising.com's extensive advertiser and agency relationships and is responsible for the company's award-winning advertising sales team. Nada previously led Advertising.com's publisher operations and was responsible for the growth and development of the company's advertising networks.

Prior to Advertising.com, Nada was vice president of business development at America Online, Inc. She has also served as senior vice president of advertising sales for MovieFone, Inc., as well as advertising director for Conde Nast's Allure Magazine.