Study: Advertisers still using Flash ads on mobile—even though they rarely work

Dive Brief:

Flash support does not exist on mobile devices, but advertisers still use Flash for mobile marketing, according to a study published by Sizmek.
The research looked at more than five billion Flash impressions and more than four billion HTML5 impressions in Q1 2015.
Sizmek found that 98.6% of Flash impressions defaulted to a static image instead of delivering the rich media ad, whereas only 8.3% of HTML5 ads defaulted.

Dive Insight:

Advertisers are either a very stubborn lot—or they just don’t pay attention to the shifting sands of technology. Take Flash advertising for example. Marketers have long loved the rich media experience Flash can offer, but are now ignoring the fact that most Flash ads default to a static image on mobile devices. A simple solution is to adopt HTML5, which is much more likely to deliver the rich media version on mobile.

How does this impact marketers? Those rich media ads that end up being served as static images fare little better than standard banner ads with clickthrough rates and engagement far below HTML5 ads. Beginning in February, Google started converting Flash ads served in its network to HTML5.