3 proven rich-media strategies for your 2011 campaigns

8/3/2019 3 Proven Rich-Media Strategies for Your 2011 Campaigns

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In this report you will learn:

Trends, tips, and examples for results-driven rich-media marketing strategies,

as well as how to put them into action in a successful campaign.

Driving Mobile Marketing Results

Maximizing Online Ad Performance

Increasing Site Engagement and Conversion

Campaign Action Plan

February 2011

3Proven Rich-Media

Strategies for Your2011 Campaigns
http://limelightnetworks.com/


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Beyond Buffering: 3 Proven Rich-Media Strategies for Your 2011 Campaigns Page 2

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3 Proven Rich-Media Strategiesfor Your 2011 CampaignsA new era of digital marketing is underway, marked by new connected devices, faster

networks, and a sense of combined chaos and opportunity. The importance of content

continues to grow and the definition of content, particularly in the marketing realm,

expands further every day. Static advertising messages have given way to interactive,

digital experiences that rely on rich media to communicate and engage with audiences.

There are challenges in this new, more-complex approach to marketing, but there are

also huge rewards. This report examines three of the most powerful ways to use rich

media for marketing: what they mean, why they work, and how to use them to drive your

own campaign success.

Driving Mobile Marketing ResultsIn the first section of our report, we look at cross-platform marketing, and how to deliver

rich media to mobile audiences. This section examines the mobile marketing strategies

we already know are working today, and offers five recommendations for driving the

highest results from your mobile outreach. From apps to ads, and mobile websites, these

are the tips and trends you cant afford to ignore. Go to page 3

Maximizing Online Ad PerformanceThe second section of our report drills down specifically on the subject of online

advertising. As quickly as media entertainment is evolving, so too is rich-media

advertising. Yet there is still some trepidation among advertisers about how to make the

most of the new opportunities available. How do you create an interactive ad that is

useful, engaging, and performs well in multiple environments? The focus needs to be on

three key elements: understanding the experience you want to create, reaching a wide

audience, and measuring results with a sophisticated eye toward ongoing optimization.

Go to page 10

Increasing Site Engagement and ConversionIn the third section of our report, we look at company website strategies, and how to

balance creativity and efficiency in your online presence. Not only is it possible to get

creative without sacrificing performance, its possible to deliver a quality experience

without breaking the bank. You need to know first what elements contribute to the quality

of your site, and second how to create a system that maximizes your resources for the

highest levels of efficiency. Go to page 15

Campaign Action PlanThe final section here examines strategic considerations for using all of the potential tacticsat your disposal to create successful marketing campaigns. This includes picking the right

tactics to invest in, putting them together in an integrated campaign, and measuring results

so you can optimize your marketing over time.Go to page 19


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Driving MobileMarketing ResultsIf youve been ignoring mobile audiences , you cant afford to any longer. More than 80

percentof Americans own mobile phones today, and more than 50 percentof thosephones will be connected to the Internet by the end of 2011. The smartphone explosion

means consumers are doing more online and accessing more rich media without turning

to a PC. Among consumers aged 18 to 29, 65 percent already access the Internet on a

mobile device.1 Its an audience you dont want to miss.

For digital marketers, mobility represents both an opportunity and a threat. On the one

hand, you can now reach audiences when and where it s convenient for them, which

makes consumers more likely to respond to your outreach. On the other hand, mobility

may threaten more traditional marketing strategies, because it opens up a new front

where consumers are engaging withand making judgments onyour brand.

Imagine a retail outlet with steady in-store traffic, a successful website, regular online

ad campaigns, and a well-managed email marketing program that has expanded

the companys audience and deepened relationships with existing customers. Now

imagine that a quarter of its customers upgrade to new smartphones over the course of

a year. If the companys marketing content isnt optimized for mobile access, the impact

on its customer base will be profoundly negative. Ads that arent visible are wasted

money, while rich-media website features and marketing emails that arent accessible or

user-friendly can actually create negative brand impressionsturning consumers, directly

or indirectly, to a competitors offerings.

To fill out the mobile landscape further, consider the importance ofand, more

specifically, the increased return rates that stem fromusing rich media in outreach

efforts. Consumers enjoy rich media and are increasingly accessing multimedia content

on their mobile devices. In the U.S., the time spent viewing video on a mobile device is

already approaching the time spent viewing video online on a desktop computer. More

importantly, rich media on any type of connected device has proven not only popular,but highly effective for marketing purposes. According to a June 2010 repor t byDynamic

Logic, video does the most of any online ad format to raise consumer purchase intent.2

Its an increasingly valuable tool for improving online user engagement.

Heres What We Know Is WorkingDespite clear indications of the importance of mobile marketing, the industry has been

slow to respond to new content consumption trends. While many have gotten on board

with using rich media to market products and services, few have taken their efforts

mobile. Marketers are more than a little gun-shy, given the complexity of mobile delivery

and the fact that results data is still limited.

To ease concerns, were offering five recommendations for driving the highest results fromyour mobile outreach. In other words, heres what we already know is working. These

recommendations are based on real-world findings and illustrate proven strategies that

successful companies are using to reach mobile audiences. They arent applicable to

every campaign, but they do provide insight into effective mobile marketing techniques.

35%

65%

Among consumers aged 18 to29, 65 percent already access

the Internet on a mobile device.(Source: Pew Research CentersInternet & American Life Project, 2010)

According to aJune 2010 reportby Dynamic Logic,

video does themost of any onlinead format to raiseconsumer purchaseintent.
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Cell-Phones-and-American-Adults/Overview.aspxhttp://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Cell-Phones-and-American-Adults/Overview.aspxhttp://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/smartphones-to-overtake-feature-phones-in-u-s-by-2011/http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1654/wireless-internet-users-cell-phone-mobile-data-applicationshttp://pewresearch.org/pubs/1654/wireless-internet-users-cell-phone-mobile-data-applicationshttp://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/btc/june2010/DL_BTC_Video_June2010.pdfhttp://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/btc/june2010/DL_BTC_Video_June2010.pdfhttp://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/btc/june2010/DL_BTC_Video_June2010.pdfhttp://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/btc/june2010/DL_BTC_Video_June2010.pdfhttp://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/btc/june2010/DL_BTC_Video_June2010.pdfhttp://pewresearch.org/pubs/1654/wireless-internet-users-cell-phone-mobile-data-applicationshttp://pewresearch.org/pubs/1654/wireless-internet-users-cell-phone-mobile-data-applicationshttp://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/smartphones-to-overtake-feature-phones-in-u-s-by-2011/http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Cell-Phones-and-American-Adults/Overview.aspxhttp://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Cell-Phones-and-American-Adults/Overview.aspx


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#1: Timing is EverythingMarket During a Live EventOne of the great benefits of the smartphone is user participation in events as they

happen. Need a sports score? Election update? A peek at the latest gadget as its

launched online? Smartphones make it possible, drawing in audiences that might

otherwise remain offline and disconnected. Because of this, live events offer a unique

opportunity to target mobile audiences with rich-media advertising. As consumers turn

to their phones on a regular basis for online content, there is no better way to capturea huge audience than to latch onto a compelling li ve event. Case in point : the 2010

Olympic Games in Vancouver.

If audience fragmentation is a concern, an event like the Olympics is an ideal channel

for your mobile strategy. NBC Universal increased its mobile coverage of the Olympics

significantly in 2010 through both it s mobile site and a mobile i Tunes app. It was a

potential risk, but the networks optimism was quickly borne out. Mobile video views

increased more than 600 percent over the Beijing Olympics in 2008, indicating that

audiences were engaged with the events from their mobile devices in an entirely new

way. Not only that, but a large number of advertisers recognized the burgeoning mobile

opportunity, causing NBC to sell out of mobile ad inventory before the Olympic Games

had even begun.

In addition to the audience draw of such a big event, the massive support levelsinvolved in the Olympics provided smooth ground for testing a mobile campaign.

NBC Universal, for example, made it easy for advertisers to create content once and

have it distributed effec tively and eff iciently across a multitude of mobile devices. This

multi-platform approach was likely the first opportunity many advertisers had had to

reach audiences on a wide variety of mobile devices and mobile operating systems. If

youre worried about having to create an ad that will work on the numerous smartphones

and tablets now available, it helps to be able to turn over that technical complexity to a

team of experts.

#2: Take Advantage of the Latest and GreatestAlthough the goal of most advertising is to reach as many people as possible, you never

want to sink to the lowest common denominator in your mobile campaigns. The AppleiPad provides a rich new landscape for digital marketing, with the opportunity to create

visually stunning ads full of multimedia content. Because the iPad has such a large touch

screen, its also ripe for ads that support heavy user interaction. While not all iPad ads will

translate well to other devices, early data shows that strong return rates can still make

iPad-only advertising sufficiently worthwhile.

In one of the first in-browser rich-media ads for the iPad, the SyFy channel ran a one-day

campaign with The New York Times in July 2010 for it s show Warehouse 13. Using

HTML5, the ad incorporated multiple videos, along with information on the series, show

characters, and actor bios. The click-through rate in one day was an impressive 2.92

percent, and the interaction rate jumped up to 8.62 percent.3 The heavy interaction might,

in part, be attributed to the ads entertainment value, a result of several touch-screen

features combined with embedded video content. While the SyFy ad might be a noveltytoday, the growth of the tablet market as a whole suggests that the audience for these

types of ads will increase rapidly.

NBCU sold out its entire mobile ad

inventory early for the Vancouver

Olympics.
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/6752.htmlhttp://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/6752.html


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The SyFy Networks first rich-media ad for the iPad saw an 8.62 percent interaction rate.

#3: Ads and AppsMultiply Your ImpactAdvertisers have long known that repeating a message makes it more likely that a

consumer will pay attention. However, most media formats dont provide an easy way to

drive multiple impressions at the same time. The Internet is a different animal. Publishers

often use external ad servers to serve multiple ad units on one page with different

creative content. Typically sold as a bundle to advertisers, these associated companion

ads tend to deliver more impressions at a lower cost. The rate of returnmeasured in

cost per thousand, or CPMsis higher.

Coors strengthened its recent Coors Lite campaign by purchasing a display ad right below an in-video placement.


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With mobile devices, screen space is often at a premium, making it harder to deliver

multiple display ads on a single page. However, when the main page content is video,

you can double up by buying a display ad along with an in-video advertisement. In fact,

the latest mobile technology makes it possible for ad networks to recognize attributes of

an in-video ad and sync it up with a companion banner ad. As with bundled display ads,

Limelight Networks has found that this combination improves access to more targeted

impressionsresulting in a stronger digital media campaign.

Another way to multiply your impressions is by branding an entire mobile app, rather

than just inserting a single ad. MTV Networks, for example, has begun to experiment with

app sponsorships. Its popular app The Word, with commentary from Stephen Colbert, is

for sale in Apples App Store for $1.99, but Android phone users can get the same app

for free, thanks to sponsorship by Vitamin Water. In return for its sponsorship, Vitamin

Water gains an exclusive marketing posit ion on The Word for Android users. The model

hearkens back to the early days of TV, when each show was supported primarily by a

single sponsorship. Now in the early days of mobile apps and short-form programming,

that same model can be offered at a much lower relative costdelivering advertising

that is at once dominant throughout a given content channel, yet targeted to an

audience with specific content preferences.

#4: Mobilize Your Site with a Universal URLJust as todays environment demands that your digital ad campaigns reach mobile

audiences, its equally critical that your website be accessible using mobile browsers.

Google announced recently that its mobile search engine traffic grew a full 50 percent

in the fir st half of 2010. Those searches mean that more and more consumers expect to

have full access to online information, including rich media, even from the smaller screens

they carry around in their pockets. Fortunately, the investment of publishing your site for a

mobile audience doesnt have to be technically difficult or financially taxing.

The ability to create content once and distribute it everywhere is increasingly important,

as everywhere includes an innumerable variety of handsets, tablets, netbooks, and

other mobile computing devices. This is where the concept of a Universal URL becomes

useful. For consumers, a Universal URL provides a single site address that displays the

right content, automatically formatted for whatever device theyre using at the time. For

publishers, the service behind a Universal URLlike the one Limelight Networks provides

through the REACH platformmasks the complexity of managing different screen sizes,

resolutions, codecs, and media players of specific devices.

The nearly infinite number of variables to consider in mobile publishing is overwhelming

in the extreme. As consumers turn to their mobile devices for more and more web

contentand their expectations continue to escalateyoull appreciate the benefits of

handing off the complexity of mobile web delivery. The mobile Internet is about accessing

content anywhere and anytime, on your own terms. In a word, its personal. Despite the

fractured mobile universe, your mobile website has to meet consumer expectations for a

well-packaged, personal online experience.

Bundling banners with in-video

ads increases CPMs.
http://www.limelightnetworks.com/mobile-content-delivery/http://www.limelightnetworks.com/mobile-content-delivery/http://www.limelightnetworks.com/mobile-content-delivery/


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#5: Use Rich Media Across Every Distribution ChannelRich media strengthens digital marketing efforts, extending far beyond ad campaigns

and mobile websites to social media, email, and SMS. Here again, the Universal URL

comes in handy. Its a way to lead consumers to a rich, dynamic online experiencenot

only across devices, but also across different outreach channels. Using one URL ensures

continuity and allows you to extend your rich-media presence across new forms of

communication.

For example, you can target individuals directly with a Universal URL using multimedia

messaging. Web marketing firm Imavex, a Limelight Networks customer, now includes

video in its suite of mobile marketing services. A number of car dealerships use the service

to send mobile video to both existing and prospective customers. A mobile video acts

like a video voicemail that a consumer can access at any time. Sending a video birthday

message to a loyal customer strengthens that relationship. Likewise, sending a follow-up

video after a customer test-drives a new car adds a personal touch that can make the

difference between a purchase and a lost opportunity.

1 http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1654/wireless-internet-users-cell-phone-mobile-data-applications

2 http://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/btc/june2010/DL_BTC_Video_June2010.pdf

3 http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/6752.html
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1654/wireless-internet-users-cell-phone-mobile-data-applicationshttp://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/btc/june2010/DL_BTC_Video_June2010.pdfhttp://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/6752.htmlhttp://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/6752.htmlhttp://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/btc/june2010/DL_BTC_Video_June2010.pdfhttp://pewresearch.org/pubs/1654/wireless-internet-users-cell-phone-mobile-data-applications


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Mobile Marketing Worksheet

#1: Timing is EverythingMarket During a Live EventMobile video views increased more than 600% between the Beijing Olympics and the Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Mobile ad inventory sold out before the opening ceremony had even begun.

Considerations for your mobile strategy:

What major live events are on the horizon?

What major events track to your target audience?

Can you extend an upcoming campaign (holiday event, SuperBowl, etc.) to include mobile outreach?

If youve chosen an event for your mobile campaign, who is distributing

it, and what mobile opportunities are they of fering?

#2: Take Advantage of the Latest and GreatestThe SyFy channel ran a one-day ad campaign on the iPad using HTML5. The ad, which ran on The New York Times site,

incorporated multiple videos and interactive elements. The click-through rate in one day was an impressive 2.92 percent,and the interaction rate jumped up to 8.62 percent.


Is your marketing content available across the hottest new mobile devices (iPad, Android tablets, new smartphones)?

If not, why not?

How does the quality of your creative across dif ferent devices compare with the quality of your competitors creative?

Are your interaction and click-through rates high enough? If not, can you diagnose the problems?

Can you use rich media to boost the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns?

#3: Ads and AppsMultiply Your ImpactThe latest mobile technology makes it possible for ad networks to recognize attributes of an in-video ad and sync

it up with a companion banner ad. Limelight Networks has found that combining a banner ad with an in-video ad(pre-roll, mid-roll, etc.) improves CPMs.


How can you bundle your online ad buys to get the best CPMs?

Have you talked to content publishers about the bundling oppor tunities they

can offer on the internet and through mobile apps and sites?

How can you combine display ads with audio and video inserts?

Are there app sponsorships you would like to emulate?

Can you propose a time-limited sponsorship for an app that is currently paid?

#4: Mobilize Your Site with a Universal URLGoogles mobile search engine traffic grew a full 50 percent in the first half of 2010, with consumers searching the webon a vast array of mobile devices. A Universal URL provides one site address that automatically displays the right content

formatted for whatever device the consumer is using.


How does your site perform across dif ferent mobile browsers and operating systems?

Are consumers staying to browse on your site when they access it from a mobile device?

How fast and ef ficient is your current system for publishing content for access from mobile devices?


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#5: Use Rich Media Across Every Distribution ChannelRich media strengthens digital marketing efforts, extending beyond ad campaigns and mobile websites to

social media, email, and SMS. Web marketing firm Imavex now includes video in its suite of mobile marketing

services, providing a Universal URL for incorporating video in direct emails.


Do you follow through on your online ad campaigns with direct digital marketing?Are you using rich media across web, email, and SMS marketing?

Can you tweak your campaigns based on audience response across multiple plat forms?


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Maximizing OnlineAd Performance

The media landscape is undergoing a massive transformation. Content is evolving with

new formats and interactive capabilities, spreading across new devices and plat forms, and

being analyzed for more in-depth data related to audience viewership and engagement.

More people are watching more content across more platforms than ever before.

As quickly as media entertainment is evolving, so too is rich-media advertising. The

opportunities for new types of outreach extend across new distribution channels and

new ad formats, and digital advertisers are paying attention. The world of online

interactive advertising is set to explode, with eMarketer projecting mobile online ad

spending alone to exceed $1 billion in 2011, and $2.5 billion by 2014.1 Still, there is some

trepidation among advertisers about how to make the most of the new opportunities

available. How do you create an interactive ad that is useful, engaging, and performs

well in multiple environments? How do you attract audiences with higher expectations

of the media thats presented to them? The focus needs to be on three key elements:

understanding the experience you want to create, reaching a wide audience, andmeasuring results with a sophisticated eye toward ongoing optimization.

#1: Create a Targeted, Results-Driven ExperienceDetermining objective is the first strategic consideration for an interactive advertising

campaign. At a high level, are you aiming to increase brand awareness, or motivate a

direct response? If its the former, then youre looking at developing campaign tactics that

will engage and educate audiences. Video evokes emotion, games create interaction,

and social media integration draws a personal connection between a consumer and

your brand. All of these tactics allow users to become familiar with a company or product

while also creating positive associations.

It may be that the first image that

comes to mind when you think

of an interactive, rich-media ad

is a retail product an ad for

the Gap, or a new Xbox game

release. However, the successful

use of rich media, including

video, isnt limited to flashy

consumer brands. EyeWonder,

a Limelight Networks company,

worked with Beeby, Clark and

Meyler to develop an in-banner

video feed as part of the GE

Healthymagination campaign

launch. The feed showed a live

broadcast of GE CEO Jeff

Immelt delivering a speech on

the state of healthcare. It ran on

numerous news and finance websites including CNN Money, Forbes, and Huffington Post,

and generated four thousand comments during the hour-long live speech. Half a million

viewers tuned in, and the ad reached a very healthy interaction rate of eight percent. It

was a highly successful result for a brand awareness campaign.

The GE Healthymagination campaign featured a live video

broadcast of the companys CEO. Half a million viewers

tuned in.


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Moving beyond brand awareness, if your advertising goal is to prompt a direct user

response, then the campaigns you develop should be closely targeted in order to

reach the most receptive audiences. They also often require incentives to act. Attention-

grabbing promotional features like contests and coupon downloads can exert a

powerful pull when directed to the right consumers. You can even vary the incentive

based on the target audience. Dynamic creative optimization technology provides a

means to deliver different ad versions to different consumers, based on user actions like

click-through rate or interaction rate, with automatic optimization built in. In a similar vein,

with behavioral targeting, you can target viewers by demographics, geography, activities

on publishing sites, and even by the devices they use. This fine-grain level of targeting

is still relatively new, but it has huge potential. In one of the first available studies, the

Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) found that behaviorally-targeted online advertising in

2009 brought in on average more than two and a half times as much revenue per ad as

non-targeted run of network advertising.2

Once you determine your advertising objective, consider a price/performance analysis

to see what approach will get you the highest return for your efforts. The level of rich

media and interaction you embed in your creative, as well as how finely you decide to

target your message will impact the cost side of the equation, but also your return on

investment. It s a balancing act, but one thats worth the ef fort, particularly as audiences

continue to fragment across an array of media formats and new connected devices.

#2: Improve Engagement by Extending Your ReachIn todays world of fragmenting entertainment, interactive media and targeted ad

delivery are critical, but so is overall reach. A high-percentage interaction rate is onlyuseful if an ad reaches a wide enough audience. And audience targeting is only

successful if the consumers you want to target are accessible. Fortunately, ad technology

is evolving along with media distribution models and new consumer devices. Until

recently, a video ad was only practically served through a desktop browser. Now

video can be accessed in a number of different ways. Smartphones and tablets are

seeing hockey-stick growth, with video consumption on these devices increasing at an

exponential rate. eMarketer estimates that nearly eighty percent of Americans have a

mobile phone as of 2010,3 and that the number of mobile video viewers in the US will

grow almost thir ty percent to 23.9 million by the end of the year.4

Based on click-thru rate, the family sedan clearly comes out ahead in this particular ad

placement, showing the evolution of how the creative automatically optimizes to display

the ad version most relevant to this particular audience.


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The complexity of measurement also comes through in the need to analyze data

across multiple platforms. When youve taken the time to ensure delivery of rich-media

advertising to the universe of smartphones and tablet devices, its critical to measure

campaign success across those distribution channels. You may find that your ads

perform better on certain platforms, which can offer demographic indicators or

suggest differences in playback experiences across different devices. Fortunately, the

trend toward analytics platform integration is accelerating. Increasingly there are tools

available that provide a single window into all of your campaign data, both traditional

online measurements and mobile performance metrics. These tools help you optimize

a campaign during its run, and not just analyze a campaigns effectiveness after its

complete.

Data alone does not solve the challenges of delivering an effective ad campaign,

but it does provide guideposts for continued optimization. The dynamic nature of ad

delivery combined with the rapid return of performance metrics means marketers are

better positioned than ever to act on response trends quickly to improve campaign

effectiveness.

1 http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007992

2 http://www.networkadvertising.org/pdfs/NAI_Beales_Release.pdf3 http://www2.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007901

4http://www2.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007845

5http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/is-the-ad-biz-through-with-click-through/
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007992http://www.networkadvertising.org/pdfs/NAI_Beales_Release.pdfhttp://www2.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007901http://www2.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007845http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/is-the-ad-biz-through-with-click-through/http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/is-the-ad-biz-through-with-click-through/http://www2.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007845http://www2.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007901http://www.networkadvertising.org/pdfs/NAI_Beales_Release.pdfhttp://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007992


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Online Advertising Worksheet

#1: Create a Targeted, Results-Driven ExperienceFor generating brand awareness, video evokes emotion, games create interaction, and social media integration

draws a personal connection between a consumer and your brand. Direct response campaigns require closer

targeting and incentives to act.

Considerations for your online campaign:

Is your objective brand awareness or direct response?

Have you considered adding rich media elements to your campaign? Whether youre marketing

a consumer product or business software, rich media provides a per formance boost.

Are you tailoring campaign messages and incentives based on how your ads perform?

You can cant improve your performance if you dont measure it first.

Have you done a price/performance analysis on your campaign? Be sure

to include not only expenditures, but investment returns.

#2: Improve Engagement by Extending Your ReachIn todays world of fragmenting entertainment, interactive media and targeted ad delivery are critical, but so is

overall reach. A high-percentage interaction rate is only useful if an ad reaches a wide enough audience.


Have you examined all of the dist ribution channels at your disposal?

Have you analyzed the full variety of rich-media ad formats available across consumer

devices and platforms? If not, are you sure youre choosing the right ad vehicles?

Do consumers feel they can engage with your brand in the time and manner that is best for

them? The more your audience is empowered, the better your marketing results.

#3: Make Better Investments with Smarter Performance AnalysisLearning how to analyze new audience measurements provides significant advantages in campaign planningand refinement.


How are you measuring campaign results? Monitoring engagement rates provides

a better indicator of ROI than relying solely on click-through rates.

Are you measuring performance across all distribution channels?

Do you have the analytics tools to optimize outreach throughout your

campaign, and not just reflect on performance afterwards?


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Increasing Site Engagement& ConversionIn the early years of Internet adoption, it was enough for companies to paste up

a virtual brochure on the web and call it a day. Today, weve moved so far

beyond that static state and companies with any online ambition must

consider a vast array of dynamic and rich features in their website

strategies. While many organizations are finding new ways to

engage consumers online, many others still struggle to

achieve the right balance of creativity and efficiency.

If you believe its impossible to add rich media

and interactive web components without

compromising site performance

or at least paying a

steep pricethink

again. In truth, the

roadmaps for deliveringa successful, compelling

website experience have

already been drawn. Not only

is it possible to get creative without

sacrificing performance, its possible

to deliver a quality experience without breaking the bank. You need to know first what

elements contribute to the quality of your site, and second how to create a system that

maximizes your resources for the highest levels of efficiency.

Driving Engagement with Rich MediaCompanies dont add rich media to their websites just to follow a trend. They know that

rich media invites visitors to interact online, provides unique information that cant be

conveyed in text, furthers brand awareness, and even increases purchase intent on retail

sites. The scenarios for rich media are endlessfrom product images, to training videos,

to entertainment content, to customer testimonials, to live-video events. The list goes on.

Not only does rich media deliver experiences companies want to impart, its increasingly

a feature that consumers demand when they visit the online world.

Companies need rich media to pique consumer interest, to keep audiences from

straying elsewhere, and to make it easy for consumers to take action. But rich media is a

double-edged sword: The more its used successfully, the more consumers expect from it.

To complicate matters further, quality is measured across a number of variables, including

technical components that contribute to the online experience. How well have you

organized media assets on your site, and are they easy to navigate? Have you optimized

your website code and compressed files effectively to ensure they dont create lag time?Are you working with a web acceleration partner?

These considerations play into how your site performs and how consumers evaluate it.

They require a website strategy that is carefully thought out and efficiently managed.

If you believe itsimpossible toadd rich mediaand interactive webcomponents withoutcompromising siteperformanceor at least payinga steep price

think again.


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#2: Manage Your Rich Media Assets More EfficientlyDigital marketers need to systemize the process of adding new rich-media assets,

fine-tuning media format and presentation, and supporting delivery to multiple devices.

For video specifically, an online video platform provides a way to simplify the publishing

process and create the richest possible content for online consumers. There are three

different video platform choices to consider:

1. Build or buy. The choice to build your own video platform or outsource video

publishing depends in part on your ability to make educated decisions about video

player technology, transcoding needs, and device support. It also depends on the

internal resources you can allocate to maintenance and troubleshooting.

2. Free or premium.There is always the option to choose a free video platform such as

YouTube, but with it comes a slew of limitations. You should consider how much control

you need over branding, ad placement, and visual style.

3. Simple or complex. As your content library grows, the ability to publish video efficiently

becomes more and more important. If youre updating content frequently, consider a

video platform with a drag-and-drop interface that lets you not only add content, but

customize it quickly and easily.

Customer Example: SKLZ TVSKLZ, the flagship brand of Pro Performance Sports, and the largest athletic training aid

manufacturer and distributor in the world, uses the Limelight Video Platform Solution (VPS)

to power SKLZ TV on its website. SKLZ decided against a free, off-the-shelf solution for

SKLZ TV specifically because it needed customization capabilities for its video player.

The company used Limelights open APIs to build its own content filtering system with

customized keyword search options.

This targeted search functionality helps consumers find specific information in a vast

library of instructional sports videos. SKLZ also took advantage of a VPS feature to tailor

the play button with a SKLZ logo on each of its videos. Whenever a visitor decides to

embed a SKLZ video on another site, the logo goes with it, helping to extend brand

presence across the web. To date, SKLZ TV continues to drive greater sales and traffic

to the SKLZ site every month.

#3: Optimize Your Site for the Highest PerformanceAs a marketer, you want visitors to focus on your content, rather than wondering why a

picture takes so long to load or why your site is popping up an error message on their

Android phone. Consider instituting regular health checks to ensure that your site is tuned

for performance, across all devices. Specific checkpoints should include:

1. Code. You can speed up page delivery, for example, by combining scripts and

stylesheets, splitting objects across different domains, and optimizing your sites search

function. Page performance impacts not only the consumer experience, but also your

SEO (search engine optimization) rankings.

2. Compression. Dont save compression for only the biggest files on your site. Evencompressing a 100K JavaScript can help you squeeze out better site performance.

3. Mobility. A new mobile device arrives on the market virtually every day which

means you need to support an array of hardware, software, and Internet connection

requirements. Make sure your site is optimized for mobile by testing it across the wide

range of devices and operating systems available.

For video specifically,an online video

platform providesa way to simplifythe publishingprocess and create

the richest possiblecontent for onlineconsumers.

As a marketer, youwant visitors tofocus on your con-

tent, rather thanwondering whya picture takesso long to load.


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Site Engagement Worksheet

#1: Accelerate the Experience Consumers Wont WaitWeb acceleration is new territory for many marketers. How can you approach the challenge of achieving a

cost-effective, yet high-performance result?

Considerations for your website strategy:

Do you have the inf rastructure needed to reach audiences around the globe?

Does the performance of your website hold up across geographies?

If you have a spike in traf fic, do you have the capacity to manage the influx of v isitors?

If you use web acceleration services, is your payment model f lexible enough

to meet the timelines of your marketing campaigns?

Have you discussed site needs with potential web acceleration partners to determine if it s possible

to increase online performance and weed out inefficiencies that may be driving up costs?

#2: Manage Your Rich Media Assets More EfficientlyDigital marketers need to systemize the process of adding new rich-media assets, fine-tuning media formatand presentation, and supporting delivery to multiple devices.


Do you have the abilit y to make educated decisions about video player technology, transcoding needs,

and device support, as well as the internal resources to handle maintenance and troubleshooting?

If you are using a video platform, how much control do you need over branding, ad placement, and visual style?

Do you update your content frequently, and if so, does your video platform support updates efficiently?

#3: Optimize Your Site for the Highest PerformanceAs a marketer, you want visitors to focus on your content, rather than wondering why a picture takes so long to

load or why your site is popping up an error message on their Android phone.


Do you know how to streamline your site code to deliver the highest site performance?

Performance impacts consumer perception and search engine results.

Are you compressing everything on your site, or only the largest files?

Is your site optimized for every mobile device? Do you have the means to test it?


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Campaign Action PlanAs a marketer, its critical for you to know about all the potential tactics at your disposal

especially as new technologies, channels, and audience behaviors open up new

opportunities. But its just as important to know how to use these tactics to create

successful marketing campaigns. That means picking the right tactics to invest in, puttingthem together into an integrated campaign, and measuring results so you can optimize

your marketing over time. Here are some tips for moving from exciting new possibilities to

successful campaign realities.

Choose the right mixLots of tactics look attractive, and newer ones tend to generate a lot of requests

(like Lets do a viral video!). The trick: dont start with tactics, start with strategy.

Doing so will not only help you create more successful campaigns, but also help

you justify and defend your investment. Some specific tips:

Set your strategic underpinnings. Agree to and document your overall goal,

measurable business objectives, target audiences (be specific), and key message.

Think from your targets perspective. What information do they need to go through

each step of the purchase process? Where do they go to get it? What are their online

behaviors and media preferences?

Match your tactics to your objectives. For example, some tactics are fabulous for

building awareness; others are really good at getting targets to learn about your

product. Make sure youve got your real objectives covered.

Integrate across tacticsMost successful campaigns dont rest on one successful execution (even if thats the single

thing we remember about the campaign). There are almost always multiple channels,

media, and tactics at work and working together. Effectively integrating your campaign

elements will increase the performance of each element, and multiply the results of yourcampaign overall. Some specific tips:

Connect the dots. Avoid dooming a tactic with build it and they will come illusions.

Whether you use funnel math or just common sense, be realistic about your

investment in promotional tactics that will reach enough targets to drive a sufficient

fraction of them to engage.

Never leave a prospect at a dead end. For example, if you grab your targets attention

with a banner, give them a way to engage in-banner with a v ideo, then drive them to

deeper content on your site, and let them become a qualified lead by signing up for more.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.Your targets need to see the same message many times for

it to sink in. Make sure theyre seeing it consistently across the banners, the videos, the

landing pages, the web site, the print ads, etc.


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Measure and optimizeOne of a marketers biggest pitfalls is not being able to show the return on a marketing

investment. Planning for measurement is critical not just for proving performance, but also

for launching results-oriented campaigns and getting the most out of them over time.

Some specific tips:

Its never too early to think about measurement. As soon as you know your objectives,

you can start figuring out what you need to measure. Make objectives and their

measurement a test for each tactic in your campaign and use them to help make

decisions about creative execution, too.

Put a measurement plan in place. Plan ahead for resources, time, and tools youll

need for tagging, pulling data, analyzing, and reporting. And identify what

measurement insights will really be important to you, so youre not just swimming

in spreadsheets of data but rather looking for tell-tale indicators that matter.

Be ready to optimize. Alas, you can never be sure exactly how your audience

is going to react to your efforts. But new technologies like rich media give you

richer performance data faster, and new tools allow you to test multiple versions

and optimize on the f ly. Make sure you take advantage of these in time to make

a dif ference.

Make Rich Media Deliver forYour 2011 Campaigns

For more information on how to make rich media deliver, visit ourmobility platform,

dynamic creative optimization,video platform, andweb acceleration resources online,

orcontact our sales team.

2011 Limelight Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Limelight Networks is a registered trademark of Limelight Networks, Inc. Other products and companynames may be trademarks of their respective companies All services are subject to change or discontinuance without notice February 2011

About Limelight Networks:

Every day, Limelight helps marketers deliver engaging websites, rich-media content,

and innovative advertising to Internet-connected consumers around the world. Our

global platform and our deep expertise in high-performance online delivery can

accommodate any combination of content, audience, user device, and project

objective. So marketers and adver tisers can create the ultimate user experience

on every screen, every timewithout needing to worry about the technology that

makes it possible.
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3 proven rich-media strategies for your 2011 campaigns

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