Advertising has evolved from its inception in magazine spreads and billboards. Even commercials, as ubiquitous as they are, are becoming an old form of the medium. With the rise in technology, rich-media advertisements, such as banner ads and infographics, are becoming essential to successful small business marketing campaigns.

According to Adform, the average engagement-time consumers spend with rich-media banner advertisements went up by 74 percent between the first and second quarters when the feature was implemented in a test group of companies’ internet marketing campaigns. Total video play time also hopped up by 6 percent for the same group and, during the same time period, overall brand exposure went up by 9 percent.

Furthermore, rich-media advertisements are five times as likely to generate digital engagement, such as Facebook likes, tweets and shares, than standard media.

“Taking a scatter gun approach to online advertising is no longer effective,” Gustav Mellentin, CEO of Adform, told the source. “With consumers switching off to ads which offer no creativity or relevance to them.”

Rich-media goes mobile

According to iMedia Connection, rich-media advertising isn’t just subjected to standard internet browing. Expandable banners are becoming increasingly popular on iOS mobile platforms (iPhones and iPads) but Android is closing in. 

Furthermore, digital video and direct response advertisements have proven to be very effective on mobile platforms, with video having a higher engagement rate in finance advertisements than most other industries. In contrast, rich-media mobile ads for retail businesses have proven to be all about the way a company presents its products, which gives more influence toward banner advertisements than others.

The source’s infographic states that across all verticals, rich-media mobile advertising shows 21.5 percent more engagement than standard marketing schemes, making it an excellent option for targeted internet marketing campaigns.