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“Rich media is a digital advertising term for an ad that includes advanced features like video, audio, or other elements that encourage viewers to interact and engage with the content.“ Rich media allows the audience to be more involved and engaged with the ad, typically leading to remarkable improvements in click-through rates and conversions when compared with a traditional display.
A great example of this is the company I work for, Elemis. On the Elemis homepage, they include before and after photographs but in a more engaging way to promote each product.
This type of rich media ad allows the viewer to engage with the ad 100% as they can slide between the before and after to see the results, this gives the customer the feeling of almost experiencing the product themselves. Viewers find these types of ads more attractive and more relatable and so they generally yield more significant results.
Why Utilize Rich Media?
Rich media ads, when utilized in a creative and unique way can have a great impact and yield great results for a brand in terms of the customer experience. Three ways in which proper utilization of rich media can benefit a business are:
- Engagement & Click-Through Rates
Viewer engagement improves with the use of rich media ads. Click through rates are most often higher than those of traditional marketing ads such as banners, whether this is out of viewer curiosity or intrigue in the content of the ad.
An example of this is the brand, Sally Hansen. This brand improved the consumer’s experience by allowing them to engage with the brand, visualizing themselves using the product. Their rich media advertising allowed customers to try on the various colors of nail polish within their banner ads. “These ads utilized AR technology and allowed each user to use their phone’s camera to try on different nail polish colors in real-time. This ad campaign incentivized users to interact with Sally Hansen’s rich media augmented reality ads, which resulted in a high CTR of 0.08%.”
Rich media has also shown a significant ability to improve click-through rates in comparison to traditional ads such as banners. Rich media ads are designed in a way that it is difficult for the consumer to resist the urge to interact with them. If consumers are more engaged and impacted by an ad, then the click-through rates will increase.
- Greater Impact
The way rich media ads are presented evokes a different feeling than traditional ads. Traditional ads have seen less success due to them going unnoticed or feeling intrusive to the viewer. With rich media, the ads are relatable and engaging. It does not give the impression of being intrusive or in your face sales pitch. Rich media ads lead to a more significant impact, not only in the form of engagements but in terms of the way the message is received and the way the brand is perceived.
- Data Collection
There is greater opportunity for data collection from rich media ads versus traditional ads such as banners. The format of the rich media ad, such as video or VPAID, allows the company to collect information such as click rate, impressions, engagement, and playback, and that information can be utilized to guide future ads or marketing decisions.
Utilizing rich media can benefit the marketing efforts of companies in various ways, mainly: higher engagement, improved click-through rates, more significant impacts, and increased brand awareness. These benefits have the possibility of leading to excellent conversions and a boost in the company’s brand image. Traditional ads have some effect; however, the effects of rich media, as well as the ability to gather data from rich media, far surpass the impact of traditional ads. The utilization of rich media is the future of advertising, and as a consumer and marketer, I am here for it.
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