Rich media campaigns are twice as effective at lifting brand message association, according to a new study by market researcher Dynamic Logic Inc.
The findings are based on research from Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorms database that showed rich media’s effectiveness compared with gif and jpeg campaigns.
The average lift in message association for gifs and jpegs was 21 percent, and Flash and HTML were 37 percent. Rich media, by contrast, posted an average 44 percent lift.
“We’ve noticed that the larger ads are doing best, and it’s not just because they’re large. It’s because the images and messages are appearing more prominently,” said Molly Hislop, vice president of research services at Dynamic Logic, which is based in New York.
The conclusions were drawn from more than 320 online advertising campaigns. The sample size was 338,184.
Dynamic Logic classifies rich media as Unicast Superstitials, dHTML ads like Eyeblaster, Shoshkalees, Eyewonder, Klipmart and MSN’s NGAP, and enhanced Flash like PointRoll.
The company said advertisers should weigh the cost of rich media impressions against the increases in effectiveness. Gif and jpegs may still work, but rich media may be more cost-effective. Publishers, on the other hand, should be more open-minded about rich media without discarding gif and jpeg ads. These formats, Dynamic Logic said, are critical in maintaining frequency of exposure on the Internet.
Separately, MindArrow Systems Inc. found in an internal benchmark study that, in the six months ending June 30, nearly half of the people who view their e-mail are doing it in a broadband environment.
According to the Huntington Beach, CA-based e-mail and online services firm, 49 percent viewed their e-mail in a broadband environment and the rest in dial-up. For July to December 2001, 45 percent viewed e-mail in broadband and the rest via dial-up. For the January-to-June 2001 period, the numbers were 39 percent via broadband and the rest dial-up.
Each six-month period consisted of sample sizes of more than 1 million recipients across campaigns.
“What makes this data so compelling is that it not only illustrates the movement to broadband, but also shows a critical mass of recipients enabled to see rich media e-mail messages,” said Jay Stevens, vice president of marketing at MindArrow.
