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I had spoken out on many occasions about the issues with Macromedia
Flash in online advertising. Publishers did not broadly accept
Macromedia Flash, tracking Rich Media activity wasn't easily supported,
and the penetration of the player wasn't broad enough to warrant
the risk. And frankly, there was a general perception in online
advertising of Macromedia Flash being too 'gimmicky'.
So it surprised many in the online advertising industry in March
of 2002 when Bluestreak launched our support of Advanced Flash
Tracking within our Ion ad-serving platform. Bluestreak had led
the Rich Media advertising industry for a few years with our Java-based
technology, and had emerged as a serious 3rd Party Ad Server.
Some in the industry expressed concern that we seemed to be abandoning
our Java-based solution.
The simple fact was that Java had been losing its leadership
role within Rich Media advertising due to Microsoft's decision
to stop shipping Java in Internet Explorer by default. At the
same time, the Macromedia Flash Player gained equal or better
footing with Java from an audience perspective (applications must
cover 80% of the general online audience to be considered for
advertising).
So back in 2001 we began working with Macromedia to determine
how to replace Java with Macromedia Flash. With some technical
and product people from both sides on a number of phone calls,
we began to brainstorm options for performing a Java-replacement
surgery.
As we researched and developed, we worked closely with Steve
Chernoff at Macromedia to ensure that we would be compatible with
their new Multi-Tracking kit. This was an initiative they had
been trying to institute with key publishers and ad serving companies
that would enable Macromedia Flash tracking in a standard way.
We settled on March as the release date for our version of Macromedia
Flash tracking.
As our March release date drew near, and it became clear that
the first beta version of the Multi-Tracking Kit was not going
to be accepted by the industry at large, we decided to go ahead
and release our solution anyway. While we adjusted our approach
very little on the server side, we made sure we would be compatible
with the Macromedia approach on the client side when the tracking
kit is finally adopted as a standard.
The idea is elegantly simple. We provide a clear and easy way
for Macromedia Flash designers to build ads to a simple specification.
It makes use of very basic ActionScripting. You can track up to
24 actions within the Macromedia Flash file, including Click-through,
Load Movies, and any other user-defined actions. Trafficking the
ad through Bluestreak's Ion Ad Manager is literally as easy as
it would be with GIF files. All the Rich Media tracking is pulled
out of the SWF file with no extra work - all your tracked actions
are automatically named as you specified them in Ion reports.
Our advanced tracking solution is compatible with Macromedia
Flash 4 files and higher, and very simple to use. Macromedia helped
put together the guidelines for designers to use. We integrated
their suggested back-end architecture into the solution our team
had already been designing.
Bluestreak's customers say that the ease of designing and trafficking
the resulting creatives has led them to use much more Macromedia
Flash. We are seeing continuous growth in the number of Macromedia
Flash ads we serve.
"We found that Bluestreak's solution for tracking rich media
actions in Flash enabled us to offer clients a very rich tracking
model," says Karen Gordon Goldfarb, Co-Creative Director
at SF Interactive. "It was easy to design to their specs
and traffic the end product."
In fact, an ad that SF Interactive developed using Bluestreak's
Advanced Flash Tracking for the advertiser Quantum, ran on CNET
with a 4% click-through rate, a 25% lift in unaided awareness,
and a record interactivity rate for CNET. This ad became the basis
for a turnkey product that SF Interactive now offers called the
Ad3 ("Ad Cube") Rich Media Platform. It's an online
ad that allows users to interact with Macromedia Flash-based video,
audio and 3D demos within a single IAB-standard ad unit.
"Among the Ad3 unit's selling points are its fully trackable
format," says Gordon Goldfarb, "thanks to Bluestreak's
support of Macromedia technologies."
Once Macromedia has completed their Macromedia Flash Multi-Tracking
Kit and it is approved across the industry, any ad you build to
that standard will work in any ad server that supports the Multi-Tracking
Kit. Bluestreak's early experience with supporting Macromedia
Flash certainly gives us an edge, but we see the success of Macromedia
Flash in the market as a win for everyone.
About 20% of the ads we serve today are Macromedia Flash, which
is by far the most commonly served Rich Media format in our system.
Prior to releasing Macromedia Flash as its own creative type within
Ion Ad Manager, it made up only about 2% of the creatives we served.
Given the ubiquity of the Macromedia Flash Player, and the fact
that Macromedia Flash is the most widely used Rich Media design
tool, the future for Macromedia Flash advertising is very bright
indeed.
Note: A semi-public beta for the Macromedia Flash Multi-Tracking
Kit will be available soon. Send us an e-mail
if you are interested in providing feedback for this new process
that will enable you to track multiple events within Macromedia
Flash advertisements.
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