Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), announced the kick-off of the study to test and measure how successful rich, interactive advertising/promotional micro Web sites are at engaging with consumers. The goal of the study is to compare and contrast “engagement levels” of three automotive micro sites and three movie/entertainment micro sites. Specific measurements regarding consumer attitudes and behaviors on micro sites that feature rich interactive features such as AJAX and Flash-enabled content will be uncovered by the study. 200 general Internet consumers will perform tasks assigned by Keynote on each of the six interactive advertising sites for a total of 1,200 participants.

Internet advertising is the fastest growing category of the $300 billion advertising market. However, 69% of consumers favor ad blocking products. Therefore, advertisers are creating the next generation of advertising through rich, interactive promotional micro sites that go beyond the traditional banner ad to engage, entice and excite visitors. These micro sites are growing increasingly popular as a way to offer more and better information than a standard advertisement, and offer the ability to “connect” with end users. They are similar to TV ads in that they offer high production values and incorporate pop culture. However, unlike TV ads, they are highly interactive.

Keynote’s study is the first of its kind to measure user engagement within this expanding advertising micro site space. Through the use of new technologies such as Flash, AJAX and DHTML, these interactive sites provide the tools for users to self-segment, and explore the components of the interactive advertising site they are most passionate about. Understanding a consumer’s relationship with interactive media requires new measurement tools and a new approach to measurement. Click-through rates and time spent on a site no longer deliver the insights necessary to continually improve ROI and increase the bottom line.

To perform the study, Keynote will use WebEffective 6.0, the newest version of its market-leading online research product used by companies to improve Web site effectiveness and online business performance by conducting in-depth customer experience research. WebEffective 6.0 provides Web marketers, researchers and advertisers a customer experience research and usability lab without walls, and now includes cutting-edge capabilities to measure the attitudes and behaviors of users as they investigate an interactive Web site incorporating Web 2.0 technologies. Querying the user as s/he performs specific rich, interactive advertising tasks, as assigned by Keynote, and collecting technical metrics at the same time, provides marketers with a holistic picture of which site elements are working effectively to promote your brand, and which are not.

“As micro sites grow in complexity, simply reviewing a site and asking before and after questions will not give marketers the data they need. User perceptions change within the experience, and the end result will be different depending on the elements interacted with. Measuring during the experience will grow increasingly critical as the sites become deeper and more feature-rich,” said Don Aoki, senior vice president and general manager of customer experience management at Keynote. “The ultimate purpose of advertising is to impart information, develop positive attitudes, and aid in inducing action beneficial to the advertiser. Historically the consumer was a passive and often unwilling participant. However with interactive advertising, the consumer must be presented compelling content to draw him or her into the interaction. The consumer must be engaged.”

The goals of the Keynote study, which kicked off November 1^st and runs through November 15^th, are to uncover how engaging, interesting and satisfying each of the interactive advertising sites studied, is to consumers. The results of the study will be published in early December. Aggregated measurements to be captured include:

• Number of interactions with each site;
• Number of hovers on the site;
• How long consumers spent exploring the site:
• How satisfied were consumers with their experience;
• Did consumers know how to interact;
• Were consumers frustrated;
• Brand impact and brand perception metrics.

For more information about Keynote WebEffective and/or the first ever study of interactive advertising Web sites view here.