The term rich media originated in the world of online advertising. It is used there for ads that use additional triggers to get viewers to interact and engage with the commercial content. Those triggers are technological features such as the use of video, audio or even games, ads that can be expanded by the viewer or include links to social platforms, etcetera.

Interactive images and rich media are closely related concepts. But rich media is even more all-encompassing, since it takes the user beyond merely interacting with a certain image into a digital realm that expands far beyond that original image.

Look at some examples of rich media from our best practices section.