Online poll positions: Interpolls draws audiences with Web ads based on brief quizzes.

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INTERPOLLS, tucked away in an alley off of busy Colorado Boulevard in Old Town Pasadena. may be the best-kept secret in the world of interactive online advertising.

The 60-person company specializes in software for what's known as rich media advertising, or Internet ads that draw audience participation. Key examples am ads that feature polls placed on blogs, MySpace pages and Web sites, asking viewers to pick presidential candidates or whether Russell Crowe's "Gladiator" could outfight "Ben-Hur."

Entertainment companies such as Warner Bros. and NBC Universal have been loyal customers for eight years. Most Interpolls clients are Fortune 500 businesses.

With the market for interactive multimedia ads expected to explode in coming years, Interpolls is one of the oldest and smallest remaining independent companies to specialize in this advertising. Most of its competitors have already been swallowed up by media giants such as Gannett Co. Inc. and Google's DoubleClick.

Interpolls is behind the coding for high-visibility Internet polls, such as online ads for the movie "Sex and the City."

In the months before the release of the hit film, ads developed by the company were shown on every major network as brief personality tests that invite users to answer five questions to find out which of the movie's four main characters they resemble the most. Users could also click on a button that would send the movie's release date to their Microsoft Outlook calendars.

"Every other type of advertising is a one-way communication, where it's about pushing ads to users," said Peter Kim, chief executive of Interpolls. "But poll-based ads invite users in an interaction."

They also lead to more engagement, because once people have taken the poll they'll want to see the results.

"By human nature, if people answer a question, they want to see where they stand," Peter Kim said.

The ads were in the form of "widgets" that can be picked up and dropped into any social networking pages or blogs. A key element in the success of the "Sex and the City" promotion was how far it spread. In a successful online campaign, an ad is passed on to another viewer four times. "Sex and the City" ads passed from Web site to Web site an average of 10 times.

Poised to dominate

This type of interactive advertising is poised to dominate the online ad market in coming years. Jupiter Research estimates by 2013, advertisers will spend $6.3 billion in rich media advertising, compared with $1.7 billion on display ads. Today, the ad spending breakdown is $2.5 billion on interactive and $3 billion on display.

If users have high-speed Internet, which allows for a smoother viewing experience, rich media ads are better at engaging an audience than banner ads, said Emily Riley of Jupiter Research. The firm expects 75 percent of U.S. households to have broadband in five years.

"Rich media ads are just a better experience for the consumer," said Riley. "They can play a game on the ad or even build a dream car on the ad."

Interpolls said its technology makes ads more accessible because it's built on HTML codes instead of Adobe Flash, which is most commonly used. This means the ads are viewable on any Web site or mobile devices such as iPhone, without having to download extra software.

Analyst Yun Kim of Pacific Growth Equities said this technology differentiation isn't a big deal. Most computers now have Flash; it can be easily downloaded on mobile devices.

"Right now, it's all about the ideas, and less about technology," Yun Kim said. "It's a question of whether you have an innovative idea and strong sales and marketing force."

He believes that many more companies are likely to surface with new ideas for rich media in the next 12 months.

One of them may deal with Internet TV, where viewers will eventually be able to click on parts of the screen, such as a character's jacket, and get product information.

Knowing Hollywood

For advertisers, a prime consideration is knowing the marketplace, said Elias Plishner, senior vice president at Global Digital Communications, an agency for Sony Pictures.

Most of the rich media companies can provide the type of ads that Interpolls does, Plishnet said. But Sony prefers Interpolls because it understands Hollywood.

Interpolls is the only leading rich media company based in L.A. that specializes in studio advertising. Warner Bros. was its first client.

Peter Kim, then 26-year-old, launched the company while crashing on his friend's couch. The friend was a post-production manager on the sitcom "Friends," and introduced him to his contacts at Warner Bros. Home Videos.

That was in 1999, before the tech bubble burst. During the downturn, Peter Kim heeded the wisdom of Silicon Valley investors--suck it up or shut it down--and hung on until late 2000, when Warner Bros. finally signed.

The company was impressed with Interpolls' demo widget on the DVD release of movie "Ben-Hur," which they placed on the Warner Bros. site. The poll-based ad on the Warner Bros. Web site asked who would win if Ben-Hur and Gladiator-from the hit movie at the time--faced off in coliseum combat. The ads reported a 9 percent response rate. At the time, average click rate for users on display advertising at the time was less than I percent.

Interpolls took off three years ago. Its growth rate since then has been 66 percent, and last year's revenues were more than $10 million.

By BOOYEON LEE Staff Reporter