Rich Media Strategies for 2007

We rap up what happened in the rich media industry in 2006 and take a stab at what to expect in 2007.

2006

2006 saw the rich media industry establishing itself as media companies capitalised on online video viewing; creating revenue foundations for coming years.

Streaming-video ad serving vendors were rapidly acquired by well established advertising companies creating or planning rich media or video advertising.

2007

So what’s expected of 2007. Are amateurs threatening the once closed powerful domain of the professional advertising industry. The areas common to most rich media strategies for 2007 will include three key elements:

Technology
Consumer Production
Ad Campaign Reformatting

Technology Elements

Rich Media Technology Accessibility

One only has to surf through the multimedia sections of FreeDownloadCenter.com or Tucows.com to appreciate the plethora of multi media applications being distributed as either freeware or low cost shareware. This accessibility to feature rich multimedia production technology, at no more cost than a pizza and coke is driving the creative passions of the masses. Add to this editing capability: media application API’s, consumer driven Video Ad Networks, media element reinterpretation and video tagging and there’s a whole lot happening that will underpin the rich media world for 2007

Free Consumer Access To Technology

Media application interfaces [API] allow data to shared between Web-based applications. For instance, Google Maps is a direct result of companies providing consumers with access to technologies that were previously off-limits.

2007 can see APIs further opened in online video, allowing consumers and advertisers alike to use and plug into popular community video sharing sites to ultimately create more advertising inventory and innovative experiences.

Accessing Rich Media

Video Ad Networks

Video production is no longer the domain of specialists. Online ad networks such as Advertising.com and ValueClick are now distributing content and selling video inventory. Their combined reach threatens many cable TV networks, with behavioural targeting technologies capable of better targeting.

Using Video Elements Online

Consumer Production Elements

Consumer Celebrities Turning Pro

It’s not only whats being shown, but who is presenting. Consumers are turning themselves into celebrities, away from media industry control. Many are asking “Will amateur content creators start being compensated for their content”, and if so, will this change their street credibility with their social community audiences.

Reinterpretation

Reinterpretation is the editing and reuse of media elements by the consumer. Technology has made reinterpretation of both video and audio content within the easy capability of the average consumer and Creative Commons Licenses and General Licensing deals have broken down legal barriers to accessing content.

Video Tagging

The capability for consumers to extract clips of video, add comments and timeline tag indexes before forwarding to their online community is adding to the personalisation of rich media elements. Video Tagging features are now common to free video sharing sites such as Viddler, MotionBox and VeoTag.

Ubiquity and Serialization

In 2006, rich media consumer blogs paralleling online serialized programming such as Ask A Ninja have demonstrated that audiences can be gained, grown, and sustained using effective content distribution and community.

Adding community features drives engagement, distribution and promotion channels in a viral manner. An innovative, entertaining video will be emailed around the world in a matter of hours.

Ad Campaign Reformatting Elements

Product and Brand Placement

Embedding brand into rich media content benefits from the association with the content elements. In addition, ‘ad’ accessibility is improved.

Associated authenticity provides more value than single commercial could deliver and keeps ads in front of eyeballs as alternative media players threaten television as the dominant delivery channel.

Original branded entertainment content distributed using multiple channels can exponentially increase the number of views the content receives.

Ad Collision With Virtual Worlds

Love them or hate them, television reality shows and webcam websites have hit the hearts and minds of millions of viewers worldwide. At present it is one of the most effective channels to reach elusive 18-24 year old demographic. Read more on Virtual Media

Online-Exclusive Campaigns

As the market becomes more mobile connected at higher download rates, we can expect more big brand advertisers develop campaigns specifically for the Web. Media planners will ill-afford to not increase their rich media budget percentage if they want to retain ad exposures. Keep watch on What’s Happening for the latest updates in Rich Media Advertising Campaigns.

Ad Format Breakout

Advertising agencies are challenging commercial ad formats, the standard 15 sec and 30 sec spots model. Common belief is that On-demand, free media can be ad-supported, and deliver an effective message in just 10 seconds. Certainly helps support smaller video file size.

Keep Watch!

Next: Using Rich Media