This past week, EyeWonder has been all a-buzz with the new release of our internals systems, reporting, and most importantly our Flash component tool AdWonder. The team did an absolutely phenomenal job gathering requirements, listening to what was important to our clients and the market at large, and coming up with some tools that will vastly improve workflow to the everyday EyeWonder process. A shining example of this, the new version of AdWonder is jam-packed with improvements. Some notable new features (supported by templates you can download as part of the full release):
Instream Products: create bugs, fixed roll, full-screen, and ticker formats without a whole lot of side-stepping. Design instream ads in flash to take advantage of the interactivity of the web.
Widgets: create widgets in flash and allow for full AdWonder tracking/reporting
Roadblocks: test 2 synchronized ad units in the same page
The biggest changes, however, are to the adWonder panel workflow itself. There are too many improvements to give them all justice here, but just to note a few:
Multiple Select is possible and encouraged for manipulating ads and videos
There is now a grid-type layout in order to see better lists
Several plans to filter and select based on ad and video properties
Campaign association to organize and work with your ads
Anyway, I am extremely impressed and excited to see this forward advancement. A big shout out to the team! In honor of them, I thought I’d post a photo of some of the team members (Meng, Kyle, and James with photo credit to Barbara). Thanks guys!
ps: you can download the release and see tutorials, release notes, etc. on unleashthewonder.com!
Sooo… here’s a little strange nugget of information we just discovered while loading in a .txt file into Flash content using loadVars.load(): the ActiveX Flash Player in IE 6 does NOT like GZIP compression and cache-control being set to no-cache from an HTTP request. Flash also doesn’t allow you to change the response type client-side, so the only solution is to change the host. We didn’t figure this out, this guy or gal did (thank you!). Also note - he’s specifically talking about XML here, but we also had this issue with plain Text files. Needless to say, the EyeWonder staging and live environments now take this into account, so load away with those txt files!
I realized recently that some of the same questions come up from component users over and over again, so while we make these things clearer in the UI, I thought I’d also remind people of two cool things about the AdWonder Component:
1. The Component version relates to the version of Flash Studio you are using, not to the swf version that you need to publish. For instance, if you are editing a file that will be published in Flash 8, but you are using the Adobe CS3 version of the Flash editing application, you will still be using AdWonder 9.1 (or whatever subrelease is currently available). AdWonder 8 is because we still support the use of Flash 8 for those of you who haven’t been able to get CS3 yet.
2. If you need to edit a bunch of different ads at once, open up the AdWonder panel and publish the ad through the tool. The correct copy of the main FLA and any additional FLA assets that are checked will open and stay open after publishing.
Recently, EyeWonder got even more press over a wicked cool ad that we worked on with Stinson Partners for their client, GE. GE had an ambitious, and very forward-thinking, notion to run branding ads related to their differing business objectives, and then on a Thursday afternoon, switch those ads dynamically to display an instantly-playing, live-steaming event within those ads to allow their CEO, Jeff Immelt, to communicate directly with stock investors.
There have been lots of press over this, but I’m sure for some of you more technically-inclined people, you’re wondering, “why is this a big deal - flash has had live streaming for a little while now?” Well, good question! I’ll tell you why:
Live streaming events are typically shown on websites. While at a platform level, there is no difference between a website using flash vs. a website running an ad using flash, it’s important to understand SCALE. Typically, large events would be considered a few thousand people. This ad served live streaming video to over 640,000 users for an hour-long event. To run a live event through an ad, you have to consider that your event may have to accommodate up to 100 times more concurrent users than a typical website event.
Akamai was fantastic during this whole process! EyeWonder and Akamai have been long-standing partners, but it’s just really exciting to see a partnership grow like this into something to be able to support this sort of event. Their infrastructure utilized the latest available version of Flash Media Server and they also helped us do loads of testing, retesting, and thinking through contingency plans. They, of course, also worked with Stinson and GE on the live encoding service. You have to remember that you’re not just supporting the video serving, you also need to think situationally about what happens on the encoding side. Akamai proved once again why they are leaders in the space.
Over 6000 questions were submitted to the interviewer during the live event. The clever solution to doing this quickly, efficiently, and without building out massive support behind the scenes was to use our EyeWonder send-to-friend feature. You can see some additional questions in the FAQ and the VOD version of the webcast here.
Overall, great work to everybody on the EyeWonder and Akamai teams and also congrats to Stinson and GE for creating and executing such an innovative, effective idea.
I had thought about making mention of QR Codes in my 2008 outlook post, but six seemed like random number of predictions.
Anyways, I just read a little article on MarketingVox talking about Google incorporating QR Codes into print ads, allowing for further measurability and quicker access to additional information for the consumer.
QR Codes are bar codes that store information (usually a website URL) and are accessible via a camera phone. They’ve been around since the mid-90s and have had some success in Asia and Western über-geek circles. The codes can be “read” from print or online. With over 50% of US cellphones having a camera phone, I would imagine we will see a rich media campaign utilizing QR Codes by the end of the year.
The QR Code to the right links to UnleashTheWonder.com.
I first heard about QR Codes during a session led by Aral Balkan at last year’s FITC Toronto. He talked about using QR Codes for SWX RPC much of it went over my head as I thought about the marketing possibilities of using a QR Code. Contests where the users collect information in the online and offline world leading them to a prize, a simple coupon made just for your cell phone that can be viewed simply by taking a quick picture of a rich media banner (or print) ad, or way to drive traffic and awareness of a mobile site by encouraging the user to snap and click.I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea, but am excited to see what you (smart marketers) come up with and look forward to working with you.
Other cool things that I am excited about and expect to see this year:
new Papervision 3D ads (expect to 360° video, check this out and imagine the user/brand experience if done right)
live video (where it is actually relevant and apparent to the user)
and lots more, but I will get some folks upset if I mention it before it goes live!
UPDATE: I received an email from Roger, who manages a webzine all about QR Codes and two-dimensional bar codes: http://2d-code.co.uks. Very cool indeed!
Last month Adobe released their latest Flash Player Version Penetration numbers. Check out how far Flash 9 has come along:
Our latest numbers tell a similar story (as they have since we began cross-referencing):
94% - Flash 9+
97% - Flash 8+
97% - Flash 7+
We like to keep a close tab on these numbers for two reasons:
keep our clients up to date on the latest numbers, so they can feel comfortable using the latest technologies available
compare and verify our internal reporting numbers against Adobe’s
So, with Flash 9 hovering around 94-96% — why are you still publishing for anything less? Flash 10 was showcased at MAX in the Fall and is about to be released in beta, but I still hear from agencies who are saying they have to publish for 7 (and even a few that say they are still publishing for 6 - eek!?!). Let’s look at the two main concerns I hear from folks who are stuck in yesteryear:
The site requires Flash 6/7/8 - EyeWonder has a fantastic group of folks that are constantly working with our publishing site partners to ensure we have the latest specifications and helping educate the sites’ ad ops teams on the latest and greatest of the technology we use. There is not a single site in our massive publisher network, where we cannot run your Flash 9 creative.
My client requires Flash 6/7/8 - This can be a little trickier, but we are happy to provide you our latest internal numbers (see above) to show them what the penetration of Flash 9 is compared to their preferred player version. Of course, if they are kicking it old school with a Flash 6 player it may be time for an intervention and an upgrade (just kidding, well kind of). Oftentimes I have seen the push for an upgrade come from the agency’s novel concept that requires the use of the latest and greatest Flash player…plus it doesn’t hurt that sites like at least two of the top 10 websites (YouTube and MySpace) require Flash 9.
Most of you know this, but when a user has an older version of the Flash player than what the EyeWonder creative was published for, they will receive an alternate or failover ad. For those ~5% of users, most of the time this is a JPG or GIF, but sometimes we will serve a standard SWF. EyeWonder’s technology works on more browsers and operating system configuration than any other rich media provider I have seen, which is a testament to our development team and our quality assurance department.
Since CS3 shipped in May, we have seen some fantastic executions taking advantage of Flash 9’s features, several of which have been highlighted here and in our monthly newsletter. So with part of 2008 already behind us, what are you waiting for?
When you do come up with something especially cool, let me know and also be sure to submit it to our EyeWonder Creative Awards.
Today I made my debut as an author on iMedia Connection; you can read the full article here. The piece discussed general best practices and things to keep in mind about planning and creating Rich Media Advertising for IM clients. In putting this article together, I realized that before recently, there were few opportunities for really advertising anywhere other than banner ad placements.
<— My picture on iMedia which I do not love.
Almost exactly 5 years ago, AOL ran their very first rich media client campaign in AIM, and they continued to work with us exclusively for quite a while after that. The ad was for “Elf” with Will Farrell - a new release ad, and while extremely simple, it proved to be incredibly effective. Interesting tidbit - in the early days, AIM even ran with audio at certain times of days. While this is pretty much accepted as a faux-pas now, the AIM team was able to take some risks and experiment with what worked. This was also truly a ground-breaking adventure for other reasons - not just because of the unique format and placement, but where else could you target the crap out of the ad if you wanted and still reach a HUGE audience who is, arguably, already engaged in your surrounding content. This type of ad, while seemingly small, packs a lot of punch and you can run that ad now on MSN, MySpaceIM, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, and AIM with little fuss. Standardizing this process and finding ad processes that will get the best response for this sort of purchase has continued to refine and deepen over the last 5 years. There are very few places in the online world where you can buy just a few placements, create just a few ads with AdWonder, and get the kind of audience and response you can get with IM applications.
We’ve learned a lot about how to get campaigns of that magnitude up and going quickly, which as little inefficiency as possible, and now we will able to apply it to other mediums. Widgets, facebook apps, in-stream ads, and maybe even set-top boxes will start to need a standard way of operating and planning for, and then they will start to need best practices. I’m excited to see where these other things go!
What’s better this time of year than trying to find a parking spot at the mall or waking up at 5 am to get a Wii for that special someone? A list looking forward to the new year, of course!
So here are a few things that I am excited about next year:
Widgets - with the release of our SocialWonder offering, advertisers and agencies have more opportunities to think outside of the standard banner ad placement for rich display advertising. Empowering users interested in becoming part of the conversation on their own terms, by opting in to a rich media widget allow the user to profess their affinity for the brand, product or promotion. Expect to see agencies and advertisers rethinking what they offer users through their online advertising in terms of rewards and growing the evangelists for the brand.
In-Stream - it was not that long ago EyeWonder announced our In Stream 2.0 Research Initiative with a focus on identify what works in the In-Stream space. Regardless of the preconceived notion of pre-roll, we decided we could take an academic approach to analyzing all of the various types of In-Stream ads, which include the pre, post and mid-rolls, bugs, tickers, and other overlay ad formats. Look out for some of the initial data in 2008 to not only learn what works, but also what we have learned regarding the process of executing In-Stream ads for some of the world’s top agencies and brands across many of the preeminent online video content destinations.
Longer Form Content - Users will continue to snack on different pieces of content that is educational and/or entertaining, but there is still more to video content in rich media banner ads than :15, :30 or :60 seconds. We saw lots of success with campaigns like The Police, where users went crazy eating up the full length music videos and audio tracks. With DRM protection in place (like Adobe’s Flash Media Rights Management System, which we use in our EpicWonder offering) content owners can rest easy knowing they have control of their content and can reward users with a lean back experience via a banner ad. Expect to see more executions from the entertainment industry (the others will follow) with content users will not mind spending the time to sit down and have a full meal versus just a quick snack.
Synchronization - this year we saw a huge explosion in moresyncedbanners than all previous years combined. Part of this was due to technology enhancements, but I think this was able to truly happen because the creative team started working closer with the media team to be able to come up with the idea, plan and execute together. With more active cooperation between these teams and the constant advances in technology, you can plan to no longer see dueling rich media executions on the page, but banners that perform on the page in perfect synchronicity.
Creativity Marrying Efficiency - Looking back to a year ago, it amazes me the improvements that have occurred in the space since we were able to get creativity and efficiency in a room together and sparks flew. Over the past year we have almost tripled in head count with much of the additional staffing focused in our operations and support teams. Getting this many experts and super smart people hired and trained is no easy feat, but it has allowed EyeWonder to continue offer the level of service we have come to be known by in the industry. Its no wonder that with our dedicated campaign teams we are constantly growing our existing agency and publisher partnerships, while finding new groups who are new to the rich media space or new to a commitment to service excellence and innovation through technology that we offer. Not only are we hard at work on future releases of much lauded AdWonder Flash Component (many of the enhances coming from the AdWonder users directly which is awesome) there are additional product and feature offerings on the horizon. Next year there will be even more time saved in executing the outside the box ideas in inside the box timelines with agencies pushing limits of what was deemed impossible.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2008.
I’m sure if you are in the advertising space and read various blogs, sites about cool ads, etc., you’ve probably already seen that Nissan Rogue had a nifty labyrinth-like branding campaign surrounding the new SUV launch. The TV spot (both 1 minute and 30 seconds) ran in some really high profile spaces, including a few large NBC viewings like the season premiere of Heroes, and a few episodes of the Office as well.
Nissan (and our friends at Tequila specifically) did a fantastic job of continuing or rather cohesively melding with the offline concept on their site with a few mini-site games, including a SUPERCOOL papervision 3d game that mimicked the TV spot fairly well. They built the whole thing in Flash with AS 3.0, using the red-hot papervision 3d technology (Ralph even gave them a little plug in their demo reel - cool beans ).
Many of you may not have know however, that Tequila took this whole thing a step farther, and put a Flash 9, AS 3.0 with papervision 3d technology game into an expandable ad. This, to me, is exciting for several reasons:
This is one of the first, perhaps the first, ads to run specifically targeted to AS 3.0/Flash 9 users. Because they were running with EyeWonder, we were able to let the sites rely on our authentication and really optimize the experience.
They were able, with little-to-no fuss, to retrofit a full game into an ad that was within site requirements using our component. They used the component start to finish and were able to put a very complex idea into an ad very quickly to meet their deadline.
With all the advertising on people doing 3d advertising, which is really just glorified video most of the time, this is a truly interactive 3d experience.
You can see the ad here (or click on the image above). Happy playing!
Note: I would be remiss to not point out here that there is a slight usability issue with mousing out of the unit while playing the game. However, given that this is an adaptation of their landing page game, I think they made the right choice in trying to maximize their audience by making the interaction a rollover instead of click to play. In terms of best practices, I would certainly recommend “pinning” the ad open once the user clicked to play, but that would have taken more time in terms of gaining site approval for such behavior.
The codes can be “read” from print or online. With 
<— My picture on iMedia which I do not love.
).