• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, January 3, 2008

If commercial ratings hadn't become the new standard for buying TV ad time, a recent integration by hair care marketer Alberto Culver on VH1's reality competition series, "America's Most Smartest Model," would barely have stood out. After all, providing the winner--the model who allegedly offers the greatest combination of brains and beauty--with prizes such as a cash payment and the chance to be featured in an ad campaign is as common as, well, reality competitions involving models.

"America's Most Smartest Model" is not to be confused with "America's Next Top Model" or Bravo's upcoming "Make Me a Supermodel"--or any series to be named "America's Next Smartest Supermodel."

But channels within MTV Networks such as flagship MTV and VH1, with their younger-skewing audiences, experience heavy viewer exodus during commercials, causing ratings to drop significantly during the breaks. And those numbers are really the only ones that matter, as the bulk of deals going forward now offer guarantees based on some use of commercial ratings.

Thus, MTVN has been in search of either ways to retain more viewers during breaks or ways to offer advertisers some other satisfying option for delivering a message that also satisfies MTV by taking commercial ratings out of the picture.

In November, Philippe Dauman, head of MTVN parent Viacom, said the company would soon be launching "commercial squeezes" as a commercial ratings counterattack, though he didn't offer any specifics.

But the Dec. 16 "Smartest Model" season finale offered up an example of what Dauman was referring to--which came as part of a deal with Culver to integrate its V05 line (one of the top product placements of the week, according to measurement firm iTVX). At several points in the episode, the action was downsized and pushed toward the upper left, as an L-shaped canvas for promotional content then emerged to surround it.

Shrewdly, however, in an apparent move to prevent viewer turn-off or tune-out, VH1 looked to use the real estate only partly for commercial purposes. As it happened, once the "L" appeared, a show logo announcing a viewer challenge was displayed in the bottom right. That then morphed into a VO5 logo with "presented by" and the "Break the Mold" tag line overlaid.

Then, the VO5 logo gave way to a trivia question--example: "According to legend, Cleopatra gave herself red lips with what substance?"--with multiple-choice answers in the space. And viewers were prompted to send a text-message response to determine if they were "smarter" than the "Smartest Model."

MTVN appears to be highly committed to making the "squeezes" attractive to advertisers. Instead of using them solely during low points in the action, one appeared as the "Smartest Model" winner was being named.

For Culver, it would appear to be a coup to have an early shot at having its brand "squeezed"--if only for the novelty factor.

But could the same be said a year from now? It might depend on how innovative MTVN gets with the "content" aspect in the "L."

Consumers--particularly young ones--are bombarded by marketers and networks looking for them to send a text message for one thing or another, and soliciting them to do it again isn't likely to pique their interest much.

It also might depend on how gripping the programming gets on MTV and VH1. The reason: the better the show, the greater the chances of the "squeezes" annoying viewers might increase proportionally. For MTVN, that would appear to be a mixed blessing.