That's according to Diane Charton, General Manager, at Acceleration Media, who notes that research from World Wide Worx shows that rich media banners accounted for only 7% of South African online ad revenues in 2003 and grew to 15% by 2005.

By some estimates, use of rich media ads has grown by 30 percent around the world over the last three years. Rich media ranks alongside search as one of the fastest growing forms of online advertising in the world.

Says Charton: "We've seen a sharp rise in broadband penetration in South Africa over the past two years, which has made rich media a viable marketing tool. In addition, local marketers have come to understand just how effective rich media is in winning attention from users and drawing responses from the audience. Our experience is that rich media ads have a response rate that is two to three times better than standard ads."

"Bandwidth targeting allows rich media ads to be aimed at broadband users and simpler standard ads at dial-up users, eliminating the danger of alienating dial-up users," notes Charton. That means companies can take advantage of rich media to rich broadband users without irritating dial-up users.

Rich media are digital media formats that go beyond the traditional online ad formats of static banner images and animated gifs. They are developed using multimedia technologies such as scripts, animation, audio and video. These ads take advantage of more advanced presentation methods like Flash, Dynamic HTML and JavaScript, as well as audio and video. The presentation is designed to create a more engaging and interactive experience for the user.

Charton outlines a number of common ways of presenting rich media ads:
- Expanding ads that roll out when the mouse cursor hovers over the ad and shrink when it is removed;
- Floating ads (also known as eyeblasters or free-form overlays) that are super-imposed over the web page content and move down the page as the user scrolls;
- Advanced formats that engage viewers in unexpected ways, such as allowing the user to fill in a keyword obtained from offline ads for a reward or prize;
- Pop-ups served in a small window while the main Web page loads;
- Transitional creatives, which are full web page creatives that are served in the main browser window between two pages of a website. After a set period of time (usually 5-7 seconds), the user is automatically forwarded to the web page he or she had requested;
- In-page banners - traditional rectangles, blocks or vertical skyscrapers containing Flash content;
- Peel down ads - these peel away a little at the corner of the page and then expand even more on mouse-over;
- Cursor chasers - ad elements that spring out and follow the user's cursor for set period; and
- Streaming video - Flash-based videos that work in any browser format.

What happens after someone has clicked on an online advert can offer marketers a wealth of useful information, says Diane Charton of Acceleration Media.

Lord Lever, the founder of Unilever, once said: “I know that half of my advertising doesn’t work. The trouble is, I don’t know which half.” Happily, things have changed dramatically in the many years that have passed since then.

Any marketer today knows that marketing activities need to be tracked, monitored and continually optimised if budgets are to be maximised. Online marketing gives them all the tools they need to do so.

Most online campaigns are planned against the number of impressions served (i.e. how many times the ad is shown), and that is the information that most marketers tend to ask for. But, what happens after the ad is seen is just as interesting and relevant. We’re able to track everything that happens from the display of the ad to the conclusion of an online sale.

We begin by looking at the clicks recorded or how many people clicked on the ad. This allows us to determine the click-through rate (CTR) or percentage of clicks versus total impressions served on that placement. In turn, this gives us an accurate indication of how well people are engaging with the ad and responding to its call to action.

We can break this information down into responses from different environments and placements as well as different creative executions. Marketers can observe not only where people are coming from, but which message is drawing them in.

We can even monitor how many people saw an ad and didn’t click on it immediately, but made their way to the advertised site within 30 days. This allows us to measure not only direct response but also brand awareness.

Marketers are able to observe what people do when they arrive at the website. We can monitor whether or not they applied for that newsletter, entered that competition or made that online purchase, depending on what the objectives of the campaign are. We can go so far as to track the exact amount of the purchase they made.

We can link this information back to the original placement, providing valuable information about not only which placements are providing the most traffic, but also which placements are providing the most valuable traffic. This information can be used to enhance future campaigns and maximise the budget.

The online environment is thus a strong tool to effectively track return on investment. Marketers can use this information to monitor cost of sales and plan more efficiently. It takes the guesswork out of the process as the trail can be followed all the way back to the original media buy. That is why marketers should demand ad tracking as a critical element of every online campaign.

Marketers must understand upfront what their objectives are, what options they have to track this and then ensure the mechanisms to do so are in place. Also, they must remember to ensure that the costs have been included in the campaign total and that they have been clearly itemised so that there are no surprises.

Rich media will have higher ad tracking costs than standard media and one can pay up to 10-15% more in fees when including rich media in the creative mix. However, marketers shouldn’t be paying more then 25% of their campaign total on ad tracking fees. If this happens, they need to investigate alternative means of tracking - for example, click tracking rather than impression-based tracking.

Marketing and advertising have never been an exact science. The nature of people and the way they respond to brands means that campaigns need continual testing, monitoring and refining. The way online allows for this makes it a powerful weapon in any marketer’s arsenal.