AdKnowledge Reports Big Jump In Rich Media Ads

AdKnowledge said new statistics for the month of April show a more than 100% increase since the beginning of the year in the use of rich media as a format used in online advertising.

The number of Web sites taking embedded-HTML grew by 102% since January 1998, the company said.

Embedded-HTML allows interactivity such as menus and fill-in forms in Web advertisements. Other significant increases of rich media type acceptance since the beginning of the year include a 35% increase for Java ads and a 20% increase for ShockWave ads.

The figures come from AdKnowledge’s Online Advertising Report (OAR), a compilation of Web advertising statistics gathered from MarketMatch, AdKnowledge’s independent Web media planning and research tool that tracks more than 1,100 Web sites, and SmartBanner, the independent campaign placement and performance analysis service for marketers and ad agencies.

“It appears that embedded-HTML is quickly becoming a preferred rich media format for adding interactivity and animation to banner ads, although still lagging behind traditional static formats such as GIF and JPEG,” said Dave Zinman, director of product management at AdKnowledge.

“Sites are accelerating their acceptance of rich media as advertisers’ appetite for more engaging online ads increases. We believe this is just the tip of an iceberg and will continue to escalate as more agencies and sites experiment with Java-based rich media formats.”