• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 6, 2012

Publicity hounds for new "advanced advertising" efforts are just warming up.

As news of Canoe Ventures' demise -- more or less -- continues, a number of other parties also continue to tout all the wonders of "advanced advertising."

A number of stories and press releases have been supporting efforts from DirecTV, Dish, Cablevision Systems and others. Media agencies have also been pushing both trials and actual businesses.

Cablevision touted that it has delivered some 4 billion impressions, culled from 600 advertisers over 900 campaigns. Interactive TV company BrightLine might tell you it has done 300 interactive TV deals with 65 advertisers, including Kellogg’s, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson.

People still have different points of view. Some senior media executives say that  “interactive TV is dead” or that “true addressable advertising is still way in the future.” But companies like DirecTV and Cablevision might tinker with this message -- for example, video "lay overs" of TV commercials are a decent business, and  some neighborhood-by-neighborhood targeting works.

Major media agencies like Publicis or Group M won't let go. They believe all forms of advanced advertising -- including addressable, interactive and video on demand -- can still be vibrant businesses.

But an industrywide effort like Canoe, promising "advanced advertising" for national TV advertisers? Forget it. For now.

The chief takeaway, according to one executive who spoke to TV Watch: “Just because Canoe Ventures blew it doesn't mean that failure should rub off on what the rest of us are still trying to do.”

A couple of weeks ago, we sensed that pushing for more smaller, targeted efforts -- say, from one big media agency, TV network, or cable, satellite or telco operator -- was the way to go.

This would make better sense than an all-encompassing, industrywide, broad-scale effort. If you don't believe this, I can always issue a press release.