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'Contextual' Ads Connect Viewers, Program Content

  • Variety, Tuesday, July 20, 2010 12:48 AM
A number of major TV players are taking a cue from the Internet in an effort to generate more bang for the buck in small-screen advertising -- and even their own promo campaigns. "Contextual advertising" has a connection to the content of the program that precedes each commercial break. Execs see the technology-enabled shift to the kind of user-targeted advertising found on the Internet as an important weapon in the ongoing battle against DVR ad-skipping.

The concept is based on how Google does business with its vaunted search engine. Take TBS' airing of the movie "Mamma Mia!" for example. Pic is a music-infused love letter to the Greek isles, and at the close of a scene with characters romping around on a beach, the first spot in the commercial break features the Travelocity gnome watching TV footage of a placid, emerald-green sea.

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