Flash Article

Building and Deploying Rich Media Video Ads with the Macromedia Flash Ad Kit

Understanding the Flash Ad Kit and Streaming Video

The Macromedia Flash Ad Kit automates clickthroughs, the loading of external movies, event tracking, and timer tracking in Flash-based rich media ads. The Flash Ad Kit currently integrates with the DoubleClick DART Motif ad server to provide unparalleled information on ad effectiveness.

Flash Ad Kit templates provide a standard timeline, code to communicate with DART Motif, and code to automate the creation and tracking of rich media ads. A general Flash Ad Kit template consists of four layers: Instructions, Links and Descriptions, Script, and Content (see Figure 1):

• The Instructions layer serves as a guide to the template. It contains hints that are useful when you first start to use the Flash Ad Kit.
• The Links and Descriptions layer contains a list of the variables used by Flash Ad Kit functions to automate tracking and deployment of rich media ads. Ads deployed through the DART Motif service can track up to 30 distinct user interactions and events in each ad.
• The Script layer contains ActionScript that loads a conduit movie containing all the necessary code to communicate with the ad server and automate ad tracking. Note: Don't change any of the code on the Script layer in the general template or the ad might not work properly.
• The Content layer is used for the graphic elements that make up the ad. Designers can add more layers for content as needed. In general, best practices stipulate leaving the first frame empty and putting the ad graphics in the second frame. This allows the Flash Ad Kit conduit to load and initialize properly so the ad functions correctly.

Figure 1. The standard Flash Ad Kit general template layers

External movies such as Flash streaming video (FLV) files are easy to load into Flash Ad Kit movies. This allows you to host a rich media ad on the DART Motif ad server and gain all of the Flash Ad Kit's tracking capabilities, while still accessing a video stream from an external server dedicated solely to video hosting. You get the best of all worlds by creating interactive ads with video in this manner.

Streaming Video Hosting Methods

In order to create a video ad for an advertising client, it's crucial to ensure that you have a robust Flash Communication Server MX hosting solution for your Flash streaming video. This streaming server technology is an ideal platform for hosting and deploying video using the Flash Ad Kit because video starts playing immediately for your audience and the quality of the video is much higher than trying to embed video directly into Flash movies.

You can purchase Flash Communication Server MX and set up your own video server. If you decide to host your own content, then some critical issues you must consider include server uptime, server maintenance, bandwidth availability, and load balancing. Because ads are often displayed in large quantities at the same time, server loads can spike dramatically. In general, you will get better results by using an outside video hosting company rather than hosting the streaming video yourself.

The Flash Video Streaming Service (FVSS) gives you access to Flash Communication Server for your ads. This useful service allows you to begin broadcasting video through your rich media ads by signing up for an account and uploading Flash Video files. The FVSS provides clients with full audio and video streaming capabilities with minimal hassle and cost. Macromedia-approved service providers offer built-in load balancing to handle large spikes in traffic. The FVSS makes creating and deploying rich media ads with video a simple and straightforward process.

Technical Note: Cross-Domain Issues

In some cases, Flash Player 7 will not load movies or data from external domains. Although it is easy to add cross-domain functionality, it requires adding a small cross-domain policy file to the hosting provider's web servers or adding code to your Flash movies. Useful information about the Flash Player security features can be found in Deneb Meketa's article, Security Changes in Macromedia Flash Player 7.

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