EyeWonder’s John Vincent: Rich Media Pioneer
ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE – EyeWonder was one of the first companies to plant a flag in the video and rich media ad world. ADOTAS sat down with the company to see how it has parlayed its initial success into the ever-changing interactive advertising landscape.
ADOTAS: EyeWonder was one of the first companies to enter the video and rich media advertising arena in 1999. What was your background and how did you land on the concept of EyeWonder?
JOHN VINCENT: If you remember the online ads you saw back in 1999, you’ll remember that most of them were very primitive, and big brands stayed away from them because they weren’t capable of delivering a respectable and compelling brand impression. We asked the question: what if online ads could combine the emotional impact of TV ads with the interactivity and measurability of the Internet? Very quickly, we assembled a team of programmers and developers that figured out how to deliver Instant Play Video Ads online – with no required media player downloads, upgrades or headaches, because there was no media player that users had to hassle with! This was a first, and it was a very important milestone in online advertising. It meant that big brands could finally deliver instant and effortless streaming video ads that combined the reach, interactivity, and measurability of the Internet with the emotion of TV.
My background was in non-traditional ad venues, like event and new out-of-home advertising, so in a strange way, it was all great preparation for EyeWonder’s early days as a truly revolutionary new online ad provider.
ADOTAS: Has your vision or mission changed over the years? How?
JOHN VINCENT: Since day one, EyeWonder has been about easily connecting more compelling and effective ad campaigns to more of the most desirable audiences. Instant Play Video Ads were very compelling – and very effective – from the start, and they reached very desirable audiences that were starting to spend much more time online and less time in front of the TV. Of course, EyeWonder’s ad formats and features have become even more interactive and engaging as our creative canvas has expanded, and the result are campaigns that are consistently proven to outperform all of the other top providers in brand lift and impact. So I say “sorry” to our competitors, but there’s only one way to really unleash the wonder!
Our mission is the same today as it was then. As audiences continually shift and find new ways to consume digital media, EyeWonder is there with the technology to let advertisers and agencies reach them with most interactive and effective campaigns. This includes venues like in-stream, IPTV and wireless/mobile advertising. As such, we recently introduced a new term for our category – Interactive Digital Advertising – which encompasses not only ‘rich media’, but all current and future forms of advertising that is interactive and digital. EyeWonder will be the one provider that will connect advertisers to these top audiences, and will centralize campaign creative, delivery, and reporting across all top devices for ultimate agency and advertiser ease and effectiveness.
ADOTAS: Can you tell me more about why “Interactive Digital Advertising” is now more appropriate than “rich media”?
JOHN VINCENT: Well, first and foremost – it’s clear, concise and easy to understand. Interactive Digital Advertising is any advertising that combines the use of digital technology and enables interactivity. The key words here are “interactivity” and “digital.” Any advertising experience that utilizes digital technology and enables interactivity, we believe is Interactive Digital Advertising. ‘Rich media’ has become at best a catch-all term for a widening array of dynamic media, one that doesn’t even necessarily apply just to advertising any more.
ADOTAS: Why is this so important?
JOHN VINCENT: Words are important, especially when it comes to defining your business. Companies and even entire industries have died because they hinged their identity on the wrong word. Underwood, for example, once dominated the typewriter business, but they died long ago because they short-sightedly defined their business as ‘typewriters’ and not as ‘word processing’. Fifty years later, we’re in danger of doing the exact same thing if we stick to the term ‘rich media’.
Rich media as a category does not and can not accomplish this clarity of definition, ultimately intended to help grow the industry as a whole.
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Reader Comments.
Dude,
Did this JOhn Vincent oay you to write him press release?
lame journalism!
New research from Dynamic Logic shows that EyeWonder-powered campaigns once again outperform those from DoubleClick, PointRoll and Eyeblaster in the majority of key brand metrics, increasing aided brand awareness, message association and brand favorability.
Is this a joke?
First, I question the veracity of the above, how were the campaigns chosen, what were the metrics, was there a control?
Second, doesn’t the creative and media strategies have something to do with how campaigns performed?
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