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When the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) last week released its long-awaited guidelines for rich media, the response was muted, if not completely silent. Sure, a couple of companies sought to capitalize on the event by issuing press releases trumpeting their support, but the community at large seemed to greet the announcement with a collective yawn. These new guidelines, after all, didn't represent a big change from practices that, for many, have already become standard operating procedure.

Behind the scenes, however, some technology firms are grumbling that the IAB missed an opportunity -- a chance to push the envelope and take a forceful stance in favor of forward-looking rich media.

"Especially at this moment in the industry's history, to put guidelines out that don't push the standards of what people are doing already, is misguided," said Eric Picard, co-founder and director of product management at Bluestreak.

There's a fear among some rich media vendors that establishing these guidelines -- even voluntary guidelines -- might result in publishers simply adopting the standards, without making exceptions.

"We've seen in this industry that standards get grabbed onto very quickly and suddenly and are crystallized," said Picard. That kind of response would nullify technology firms' hard-won progress toward gaining acceptance for cutting-edge rich media.

"It's really going to do a disservice to the industry, it really is," said John Vincent, founder and chief executive officer of EyeWonder. "An advertiser will think it's harder now to get acceptance, but, in fact, there's never been a site that hasn't been willing to accept EyeWonder."

Catching a Consumer's Eye
Vincent's main beef is with the recommendations against audio and video that start automatically when a page loads. The IAB guidelines say that neither audio nor video should start without a user expressly asking for it by clicking on the ad. Some say it's true that audio can intrude on the user experience, but believe video playing by itself shouldn't be treated any differently than, say, Flash animations.

Other guidelines drawing criticism limit initial downloads to 15k, 20k, or 25k (depending on the size of the ad unit), and say that no more content should be downloaded until a user clicks or mouses over the ad.

"The whole goal of rich media is to attract the attention of the user," said Picard. "You can't do that if you can't add anything until the user clicks on the ad. The ads run, in some cases, will be prohibitively boring."

That issue -- of boring the user -- is something that concerns Jay Lee, senior marketing manager at Enliven. Rich media is supposed to be engaging, intriguing and surprising, he said, and he fears that standards could result in a lot of ads that look and act alike.

"If all of a sudden you turn that [rich media] experience into a very generic experience, are we going to lose that element that has made it the choice of a lot of advertisers?," Lee wonders. The whole point of rich media, after all, is to wake somnolent Internet users and get them to notice ads again. If video can only be used after you've already gotten people's attention, it can't serve that purpose.

Starting a Dialogue
Of course, boring users or doing a disservice to the industry certainly wasn't the IAB Rich Media Task Force's intention. The idea was to establish a baseline minimum guideline, so that publishers and advertisers would have a common starting point. And the Task Force did say it would reconvene in six to 12 months to revise or add to the guidelines as needed. Vendors were nearly unanimous in expressing respect for the effort.

"Rich media pushes the envelope on creativity, therefore putting forth a standard that meets every rich media company's guidelines is extremely challenging or impossible," said Jules Gardner, chief executive of Point.Roll, "but these guidelines are a starting place, and it's important that all rich media companies support the initiatives put forth by the IAB."

"The guidelines are not the whole solution," said Enliven's Lee, "but I think it's really good that they've raised the awareness of the issue, and they've raised the level of discussion in the industry. I think any time you do that with an issue that comes up over and over again, it's a good thing."

Pamela Parker is managing editor of atNewYork sister sites ChannelSeven.com and Internet Advertising Report.