• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, March 22, 2004

At a time when many on Madison Avenue are seriously questioning the long-term viability of conventional TV advertising formats, a TV network plans to offer advertisers the opportunity to test any number of new ad formats - anything from in-program sponsorships and product placements to uninterrupted, commercial-free program sponsorships - as part of their upfront advertising buys this spring. Most importantly, that network, Court TV, will underwrite the cost of research necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the new ad formats.

While it is not unusual for television networks to experiment with new ad formats these days, Court TV is believed to be making such an extensive program an integral part of its upfront advertising sales packages. Not surprisingly, Court TV will make the pitch not to conventional media buyers as part of its regular TV upfront sales presentation March 29, but directly to the top media agency research chiefs at a special luncheon it Court TV will host for the researchers in New York on April 16.

The approach is not entirely new for Court TV, just more ambitious. It negotiated buys tied to advertising R&D initiatives as part of upfront packages it sold last year to General Motors Corp. and Sears Roebuck & Co.

Results that have been made public from those tests show promise. In one of the programs, a two-minute "docu-spot" that seamlessly tied GM's ads into a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of an original Court TV movie, "The Interrogation of Michael Crow," showed the new ad unit actually generated ratings that were 2 percent higher than the program itself. Research commissioned by Court TV showed it also generated a favorable view of GM.

"It was so effective, because people thought they were watching a part of the program," says Debbie Reichig, senior vice president-sales strategy at Court TV, who will host the April 16 pitch to media research directors.

While it is not unusual for media companies to utilize advertising research as valued-added part of their advertising sales, Court TV hopes to take it to new heights this upfront sales season, pitching research directors as an integral part of its upfront sales efforts.

"We find it helps when the media research group define the program," says Charlie Collier, executive vice president-general manager of advertising sales at Court TV.

Because of its size in the market and the fact that it sells as a standalone network that is not integrated into a bigger cable network sales group, Court TV must be more innovative in the way it pitches Madison Avenue. As a result, he says the network is open to any R&D ideas agencies might have.

"There's no restriction on the conversation," he says. "If they can think it up and we can find a way to make it work, we will do it." More importantly, than just doing it, Court TV will partner with the agencies and advertisers to measure the results through independent, third party researchers at Court TV's own costs.

Collier says Court TV has its own internal "crystal ball committee" that is constantly brainstorming to think up new advertising formats - ones that will appear both "inside the pod, as well as outside the pod" - but that it is open to trying anything agencies and advertisers can come up with, as long as they don't detract from Court TV's programming and can be implemented operationally.

For example, Collier says the network would not be adverse to reconfiguring advertising formats to accommodate entirely new lengths that are either longer or shorter than conventional units like the standard 30-second spot, or the frequently used 15- and 60-second spots.

The notion that TV advertising time would soon be sold on the basis of one-second increments to accommodate the specific messaging needs of advertisers and brands was recently advanced during the Association of National Advertisers Television Advertising Forum in New York. Jon Nesvig, president of sales for Fox, almost half-kidding suggested that the one-second advertising unit would become television's new basis of sales.

Court TV's Collier says the network is ready to accept that challenge beginning with this upfront sales season, as long as the new ad format lengths can be handled by Court TV's operations department, which might mean selling fractional ad units that add up to conventional advertising formats.

"Right now we sell one-second commercials with 29 seconds of value added," quipped Collier.