Narrative in Marketing, Tech Pacts with Macromedia, RealNetworks

Narrative Communications inked new co-marketing agreements with RealNetworks and Macromedia, in which the companies will participate in joint marketing activities and technology integration to improve the effectiveness of rich media Internet advertising, branding and commerce solutions.

Narrative said its deal with RealNetworks will launch a new generation of highly interactive, video- and audio-rich Web ads by integrating Narrative’s Enliven with RealNetworks’ streaming technology, the companies said.

For advertisers, the combined Macromedia-Narrative solution makes it easier to create, deploy and measure rich media advertising on the Web, the companies said. Advertisers use Macromedia’s authoring tools to create interactive advertising campaigns. Narrative’s Enliven adds measurement, lead management and one-to-one e-commerce functionality directly within banner ads created in Director.

“Recent developments by ourselves, RealNetworks and Narrative are all enabling a new generation of rich media advertising, integrating a wide range of media types with e-commerce transactions and measurement functionality,” said Joe Dunn, senior vice president, products and technology at Macromedia. “For Internet consumers, these vehicles enable them to interact in a multitude of ways, within the banner.”

Meanwhile, Grey Interactive and the Audience Development Practice of USWeb announced plans to use the Enliven/Real Player integration for interactive banner ads incorporating streaming video segments re-purposed from TV advertising campaigns. Grey Interactive is working on Enliven campaigns for two major accounts while USWeb is developing a campaign for Talk City.

Narrative Enliven Services is a suite of end-to-end modular offerings that combine rich media advertising technologies with ad delivery, reporting and transactional services. Enliven adds advertising-specific enhancements to content authored in Macromedia Director enabling measurement, lead management and e-commerce inside Director ad content.

The relationship between Narrative and RealNetworks includes cooperative marketing, selling and delivery.