Friday March 19 3:04 PM ET Highly Interactive Ads Boost Click-Throughs
By Yukari Iwatani
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Highly interactive ads on the Internet capture greater consumer attention than simple, animated banner advertisements, according to a study by Wired Digital.
In a report to be released Monday, the San Francisco-based online publisher said its research found that rich media ads, which incorporate sophisticated motion, sound, interaction and electronic commerce capabilities, deliver greater click-through rates and brand recall than low-tech, animated GIF, or Graphics Interchange Format, banners.
Click-through and brand impact are two major factors on which most online advertisers base the effectiveness of their campaigns.
''Our main take away from this study is that, with the right message aimed at the right audience, rich media banners can be far more effective than GIF banners at building brand awareness and driving clicks,'' said Rick Boyce, senior vice president of advertising sales and commerce at Wired Digital. Computer chip maker Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news), Network software maker Novell Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVL - news) and online book retailer Barnesandnoble.com each contributed GIF and rich media banner ads to the one-month study.
According to the study, conducted by market research firm Millward Brown Interactive, consumers clicked on rich media banners at about four times the rate for GIF banners.
In addition, when consumers were asked questions related to brand awareness based on the advertisements, 77 percent of them remembered the rich media ads, compared with only 66 percent for the GIF ads.
Boyce said the rich media ads also positively impacted consumer perception of the advertised products significantly and increased the likelihood that consumers would purchase them. While rich media banners may cost more to create than traditional banner advertising, the increases in performance are significant and appear to be worth the incremental costs, he said.
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