Industry Links
TV of Tomorrow Show: Interactive TV Advertising - Who's Going to Click
This panel brings together leaders from multiple areas of the industry to discuss current and future developments in interactive TV advertising. Questions to be addressed include:
- What will interactive advertising look like?
- Do past interactive TV trials or current user behavior on the Internet provide any clues as to which kinds of interactive TV advertising will prove most effective going forward?
- What types of advertisers will benefit most from interactive TV advertising?
- What metrics will be used to measure performance?
Screenplays Magazine Interview
Fred Dawson, Editor of Screenplays Magazine interviews Gerrit Niemeijer, Visible World CTO on the topic of targeted television advertising, including the pace adoption and new technology developments. Gerrit is bullish on the adoption of advanced advertising, citing EBIF as the major accelerator.
The Two Faces Of Social TV
To this casual observer of the Internet, two very strong and divergent trends are locked in a Manichean struggle, played out endlessly through a series of technological accomplishments pulling against each other. For simplicity let's call them the individual and the crowd. At the recent UBS Media Conference, Glenn Britt, the CEO of Time Warner Cable, envisioned a world of the four "Anys" -- any content, any device, anytime and anyplace. Perhaps a bit of hyperbole, for whoever imagined walking around with any book, on any device, any place at anytime? However, the dream not only appears to be technologically feasible, it strikes a chord among the long-tailed, proudly individualistic, Tivo-buying glitterati.
Debunking the IPTV Myths
With all the hype about the growth of online video viewing, I decided to check it out for myself by watching all my TV shows online for an entire week. My plan was to watch Hulu or abc.com and to supplement with iTunes on the big screen via Apple TV. I also wanted to experiment with Boxee, a start-up company that aspires to provide a common user interface for enabling consumer viewing of online video on a TV screen. I am embarrassed to admit that while I started this experiment three times, I never made it past Wednesday of week one. So what does my failed experiment mean - besides the fact that I really need to work on my 24 addiction?
The Living Room War: Redefining Television
Benjamin Faes, Head of YouTube and Display, Google EMEASab Kanaujia, VP Digital Strategy and Development, NBC Universal
Moderator: Jeffrey Cole, CEO, USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future
Addressable TV: an FAQ
Addressable TV ads have been held up as the holy grail ever since the internet boom of the late 1990s -- "delivering dog-food ads to dog-food owners" as Canoe Ventures CEO David Verklin famously put it. But the progress has been slow at best.A series of high-profile trials in markets such as New York City, Baltimore and Huntsville, Ala. has helped the cable industry prep 2010 to become the first year addressable advertising could be ready for prime time. But a vast majority of the media industry is either unprepared for or unaware of addressable advertising's potential. A recent study polling 1,400 media executives, conducted by Ad Age with Visible World and Cablevision, found that 70% of respondents were either somewhat or not familiar with the concept of TV addressability.
Cablevision's Interactive Ads
Cablevision Systems has signed deals with at least four marketers -- Unilever, Gillette, Benjamin Moore and department store chain Century 21 -- for its interactive TV service that lets digital-cable viewers click their remotes to get more information or product samples during a 30-second local ad spot. Cablevision also is progressing on addressable advertising, which lets local advertisers deliver up to five different spots segmented based on a variety of demographic criteria. The MSO plans to expand the capability to all 2.9 million digital subscribers by mid-2010, Kline said. Cablevision is using technology from New York-based Visible World to dynamically deliver different ads to about 500,000 subs in Brooklyn and The Bronx.
Bringing the Click into TV Ads
As the market makes progress in addressable television advertising solutions, interactive applications are also gaining traction. Once advertisers are given the ability to deliver relevant ads to target consumer segments, the natural extension is to enhance that relevant ad with an interactive component that makes the message even more compelling and immediately actionable. The three main types of interactivity available today are Request for information (RFI), Voting and polling, and Telescoping.
Cablevision Promises Interactive TV Ads - This Time for Sure
Cablevision Systems Corp. plans to announce details of a new offering that allows TV viewers to press buttons on their remote to see more information about selected ads, and to order samples of things like shampoo or toothpaste. Called Optimum Select, the new service will be available to all Cablevision customers with digital set-top boxes. In March, Cablevision took a big step forward. It announced it was using the targeting technology Visible World to route specific ads to a specific households — an ad about diapers to families with infants, for instance. Cablevision planned to bring targeted ads to about 500,000 households in New Jersey, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Visible World Aims to Get Addressable Data Right
Visible World, one of the most established players in the realm of targeted TV advertising, hopes to make strides against one of addressable advertising's biggest obstacles: data measurement. The company is partnering with Acxiom, Experian and Nielsen for a first-of-its-kind data exchange that will merge all the set-top-box data advertisers and agencies need to determine targeted ads' effectiveness under one platform.
The data will be compatible with Visible World's zone-based addressability product, which is available in 52 million households in 105 markets, with more expected by year's end. Visible World also has a household-addressable ad product available in about 500,000 homes through a partnership with Cablevision, which is expected to roll out to all customers by 2010.
Measuring the Results of an Ad, Right Down to the City Block
The people who buy media have found their jobs more complicated lately, what with all the new ways of measuring response. Buying local media adds another layer of complication. Mediabrands, an ad-buying and planning division of the Interpublic Group, plans to introduce Geomentum, a unit that will focus on this problem. Geomentum will be large, handling about $2 billion a year in local advertising for companies like Coldwell Banker and Nestlé Waters. It will figure out how to divide ad dollars among the almost 40,000 ZIP codes in the United States, sometimes zeroing in on even smaller areas, like a city block.
Exchanges Will Play Role In Addressable TV
Tara answers some tough questions on the state of the industry, advertiser readiness for addressable TV advertising, future of ad exchange models and more.
The New Creative Imperative
It has been said that "media is the new creative." To clarify, the idea is that in this age of hyper-audience fragmentation, the "who" you're speaking to is now as important as the "what" that's being said. As any smart connections planner will tell you, with the array of targeting tools and technologies now available to us, the "who" -- and for most brands there are several now need to be as much a driver of creative development as the "what." Whether you call it "addressability," "re-targeting," "versioning," or even "canoe," targeting technologies developed by companies like Visible World are now available in 50 million-plus television homes.
Google partners with Visible World for addressable TV ads
Google announced it has formed a partnership with Visible World, an addressable TV ad technology company. The new relationship will give Google TV advertisers the ability to dynamically create several versions of a TV ad, targeted to specific segments, using Visible World's automated platform.
“This is a big step for the industry,” said Mike Steib, director of Google TV Ads at Google. “Addressability has such powerful returns for advertisers. Targeted campaigns are so much more impactful than general campaigns.”
TV Universe Expands, Share of Channels Tuned Does Not
Despite the rapid expansion of alternative media options, Americans continue to watch more, not less TV, according to an annual benchmark report from Nielsen Co. But they are spending that increased viewing time watching a relatively small percentage of the TV channels available to them - less than 14% on average.
Keval Desai Interview, Google TV Ads
Radio interview with Keval Desai, Director of Product Management for Google TV Ads, provides an in-depth overview of Google's ongoing efforts in the TV advertising space. Topics discussed include why Google decided to move into TV advertising, plans for targeting the US cable space, and how the company views initiatives and standardization efforts such as Canoe, EBIF and tru2way.
Teens Make Time for Digital and Traditional Media
"Don’t get too caught up in the hype of digital media usage" is a key message of the new Nielsen Co. research How Teens Use Media report .
The notion that teens are too busy texting and Twittering to be engaged with traditional media is exciting, but false. Instead of replacing traditional media with new media consumption, teens are simply making time for both, it concludes. Other myths that the report debunks are that teenagers’ preferences differ vastly from adults, that teens’ media and entertainment spending is insulated from the recession and that traditional advertising can’t resonate with teens.
Advanced Advertising Goes Primetime
In perhaps the biggest new advanced advertising offering to grace the upfront stage, Cablevision has combined its national upfront purchases of the Rainbow Networks (WE, AMC, IFC, and Sundance) with access to addressable television advertising avails in the tri-state area. Cablevision has the largest deployment of household addressable advertising to date and has been working with the Cablevision marketing organization and major national advertisers to run and optimize addressable campaigns for over a year, starting with its own inventory and expanding to national advertisers. Cablevision's advanced advertising sales team is able to offer household segment addressability, branded dedicated channels, interactive ads, and several other cutting edge initiatives.
Big Thoughts: Digital Hollywood's Impact On The Small Screen
I recently participated in the latest installment of Digital Hollywood in Santa Monica, Calif. Marching to the beat of Ezra Pound's injunction to make it new, the crowd pounded the last nails in the coffin of old media led triumphantly by the charge of online video. The good news is that in the video revolution that hasn't happened yet, advertising escapes, prospers and lives in harmony. The big question that remains is not about online video versus traditional distribution methods, as cost and capacity will force most viewing to be local, the big question will be about consumption -- how do we satisfy ourselves amidst those petabytes, for sometimes endless choice leads to endless heartburn.
The Promise of Personalized Video Ads
Targeting technologies are getting smarter and are beginning to enable that level of what might be considered personalization. We've been using dynamic banner ads for years; I recall a series of expandable ads we built for Expedia awhile back powered by XML feeds that pulled in the latest deals in different categories. The next evolution of that would have been to begin targeting destinations based on contextual relevance or behavioral history. Even more interesting is that technologies like this -- that have powered the dynamic Web for what feels like ever -- are making their way to video. I've written about Visible World, and it continues to be a leader in the space.
The World of Advanced TV Advertising
Brian Wieser, SVP Director Industry Analysis at Magna Global, interviews Seth Haberman on the addressable advertising market. How do advertisers distinguish between the value and cost of addressable advertising? What role will Video On Demand (VOD) play in the Advanced TV Advertising market? What user interface is needed to help manage VOD content?
Targeted Ads: The Holy Grail?
The idea of targeted advertising has been held out as the promised land of marketing. Now that the television business is finally stepping into its targeted advertising future with actual commercial launches—not just tests, but real honest-to-goodness rollouts of so-called addressable ads—it’s worth asking if addressable advertising works, and to what degree.
Just a few months ago, Cablevision turned its 100,000-home targeted advertising experiment into a full-fledged launch across 500,000 homes in Brooklyn, the Bronx and New Jersey. It’s using Visible World technology to send ads to households based on information about income, gender, number of kids and even pets in the home.
Visible World CEO Seth Haberman On Addressable Advertising
Tracy Swedlow interviews Seth Haberman on the importance of Addressable Advertising. What are the latest developments in Addressable Advertising? Can trust exist between the cable industry and the broadcasters through Canoe Ventures? How will interactive advertising work with addressable advertising?
Verklin Sizes Up Ad Future for Web, Television
Contrary to popular belief, the Web's overthrow of TV and the demise of the 30-second national spot are far from certain, according to David Verklin, the former head of agency Carat, and now CEO of cable consortium Canoe Ventures.
More People Worldwide Watch More Channels on More Devices
According to findings from the Accenture second annual Global Broadcast Consumer Survey, television viewership has grown since last year, with 40% of viewers watching six or more television channels vs. 35% in 2008, and 39% watching eight or more television programs per week vs. 33% last year.
Staying Power: TV Ads Score High Consumer Impact
Television advertising contributes more than half the impact of all marketing -- from initial awareness through purchasing -- when consumers are exposed to an overall campaign
Cablevision Addressable Advertising Deployment
Cablevision announced the expansion of its addressable advertising deployment powered by Visible World. It’s expected to extend well beyond 500K homes and 30 insert-able networks during the coming year. The announcement represents the first significant large scale deployment of targeting technology in television, and comes on the heels of a trial which demonstrated high double digit results in advertising efficacy.