The newly-formed Rich Media Special Interest Group, a non-profit industry organization for promoting rich media, has created the RMS Certification Program to facilitate the adoption of rich media among sites and media buyers.
The group, which formed last month with chapters in New York and San Francisco, hopes to educate the industry on specific uses of rich media and develop a seal of approval for sites that accept different technologies, said New York-based Unicast’s Allie Shaw, who serves as vice chair of the Rich Media SIG.
“Every rich media solution will be showcased,” Shaw said. The group will examine issues such as caching, implementation cost, delivery methods, time and budget requirements, ROI expectations and case histories.
The certification program is co-sponsored by New York’s One Club for Art and Copy on the creative side and corporate sponsor Intel. Sites wishing to receive rich media certification must host a series of Rich Media SIG ads incorporating the various technologies. Sites then will receive a rich media certification graphic to inform media buyers of which tools they accept.
There also will be training seminars on each coast examining connection speeds, latency and results for different tools. “Our hope is to develop a scalable guide to helping people evaluate [technologies],” she said. “It’s an opportunity to increase the level of consistency that media buyers, advertisers and creatives can achieve with all of the rich media companies.”
While the goal is to increase the use of rich media, Shaw said, narrowband and broadband problems will also be discussed.
“So many different entities have tried to take a stab at this,” she said. “It’s critical to take enough time to make sure things are thorough and well thought out and realistic. We’re not doing the industry any favors with “pie in the sky’ ideas.”
Sites that aggressively use new technologies and those that are more cautious will be included. “This will mean full disclosure on both sides, but it also will [lead to] much more growth,” she said.
The Rich Media SIG plans to function as an advisory board to other industry organizations, including the Future of Advertising Stakeholders and the Internet Advertising Bureau.-Adrienne Mand
IQ News: Rich Media Org To Certify Sites
