(Vivian Vahlberg)

Greg Stuart, President of the Internet Advertising Bureau in New York, said research shows rich media ads (ads enhanced with movement, interaction, video, audio, animation or other value-added features) perform five times better than non-rich media ads in boosting various branding metrics, but are usually priced at only 50 to 200 percent more than static or simple animated ads. Publishers should be charging more, he told the World Association of Newspapers' Digital Publishing Conference in London.

Stuart also said the online ad environment has become so complicated for advertisers that some agencies have had to develop as many as 100 different executions of an ad to fulfill a buy. "It needs to be simpler," he said. So he has been working to develop four standardized sizes of online ads.

Zach Leonard, digital media publisher for The Times in London, noted that ad premiums are rising to new levels not only because of rich-media possibilities but also because news organizations have new ways to target audiences better and to use technology. His organization has created online content specifically for women; ad packages for these features are "perpetually sold out." And they had great success selling an advertiser on an innovative package to support special World Cup content, including podcasts about the games by comedians that were downloaded at record levels.

He said there are "infinite new ideas" for generating revenue in the online world: "it's all a matter of creativity." Among the best opportunities he suggested are to:

• Invest in packaging content in new ways, built around affinity groups;
• Cultivate the ability to flash back, using archival content in new creative ways;
• Develop e-commerce revenues, by finding acceptable ways to take a part of sales transaction revenue instead of sending customers on to E-Bay and other sites;
• Use data to build and enhance customer relationships, taking advantage of having multiple touch points with consumers during the day instead of just having one every morning.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below or by e-mailing me at v-vahlberg@northwestern.edu.