I was recently looking at the winners of the Clio Awards and the Cannes Lions—annual awards that recognize excellence in the advertising industry. As I went through the winners in the Internet category, several things prominently stood out:

• An ad isn't always an ad. Many of the winners are not ads at all, at least not banner ads or pop-ups. Rather, they are websites that blur the distinction between advertising, product information, and entertainment.
• Sales and marketing sites lead the pack. Some of the most compelling Flash sites I have ever come across are being created for sales and marketing purposes. And not only the winners: As I visited the sites of the agencies that won and examined their portfolios, I saw that they had created an amazing number of really compelling sites.
• Flash or Flash video were in every winning site. Every winner and runner-up I saw was created with Flash. Quite a number of them also made use of Flash video.

An Explosive Trend: Video on the Web

We have been tracking the progression of the use of Flash video on websites for some time. Lately we have noticed an explosion in the number of sites that integrate video. Some are straightforward implementations with strictly-video clips like Discovery Broadband, while others use video as just another element of their rich interactive experience, like Vodafone Future Vision.

A number of trends seem to be driving this explosion:

• Rich Internet advertising delivers. Rich media advertising delivers results that are orders of magnitude better than almost anything else out there. Increasingly this means integrating video into rich ads.
• Broadband adoption is exploding. A recent Pew Internet and American Life study claimed that more that half of American adults have broadband at home or the office—and prices for broadband service keep plummeting, driving the trend further.
• Flash helps you get video on the web. Flash MX Professional 2004 provides a complete feature set for integrating video onto websites.
• Flash Player lets everyone see video on the web. Flash Player 7 improves performance and offers progressive downloading of video from web servers.
• Flash Player is ubiquitous. Flash Player 6, required to view Flash video, has reached a 94% adoption level among web-connected computers—a full 30% better than any other video player out there. Even the new Flash Player 7 is at a 67% adoption level.
• Flash Video Streaming Service makes streaming a reality. Macromedia's partnerships with Speedera Networks and VitalStream—which provide customers with huge, scalable Flash video streaming services—make it possible for large media companies like Comcast to build out large Flash video implementations.

What You Think About Video

Because we are inherently interested in the overall video trend, we ran a survey in May asking what you are doing now—and what you are planning to do—with video. Frankly, the results surprised us. According to you, video is hot!

• Nearly 50% of you are putting video on websites today, and another 25% plan to do so soon.
• Almost 60% of you told us you simply want to put existing video on your site.
• 85% of you told us that having full creative control over how your video is integrated into your site is important.
• 79% of you are interested in building interactive video experiences by tying video to various elements on your web pages.
• 74% of you are so interested in building rich video experiences that you are willing to learn Flash in order to achieve that end.

Despite this being a heady time for those of us who follow the trends in Flash video, we do have some concerns. As much as you want to use Flash video, you may not have the tools and knowledge to apply it effectively:

• Over 67% of you told us that your understanding of Flash video is poor.
• 80% of you told us that you wanted to use embedded video in Flash, which is the worst option for all but niche cases.
  

Other Flash Video Improvements

We worked with VitalStream to create a new "lite" version of the Flash Video Streaming Service. While this isn't a free subscription, it is reasonably priced and comes with a 15-day free trial. It is perfect for streaming all those videos your boss has been after you to put up on the company website.

• Learn more about the Flash Video Streaming Service ›

To improve your knowledge and understanding of Flash video, we have made a commitment to improve the educational materials supporting it. We have completely revamped the Flash Video Topic Center, adding new tutorials and updating existing ones. Here are some of the resources you can find:

• Flash Video Learning Guide ›
• New and updated Flash Video Templates ›

Finally, I would like to invite you to visit our latest iteration of the Flash Video Gallery, which features some of the most compelling customer examples of using Flash video. See if you don't agree with me that we are in the middle of a creative explosion.

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