• by Mitch Oscar , Op-Ed Contributor, July 15, 2008

The visual: a small bird is calmly nesting a giant, giant egg that is perched on the bough of a tree. Another small bird is standing across from the nest on a separate branch of the same tree.

The caption -- as spoken by the inquisitively standing, small bird: "So! When's the big day?"

This visual sparked my thinking about the substance of the official Project Canoe birth, when David Verklin arrives as chief navigator of the aquatic vehicle in early August.

To date, leaks from the Canoe handlers have focused the media community's attention on making the cable networks' linear programming more interactive, with technological wizardry from Invidi, Navic, OpenTV and Visible World - possibly including addressability, dynamic ad insertion and the old but not fully deployed stalwarts of RFIs, telescoping and microsites coupled with datamining - privacy protected of course, and advanced set top box data reportage. Also, the trades have suggested that NCC has been tasked with paddling through a morass of technical specs to link all legacy and future set top boxes for single point insertable deployments.

In my column last week --  "As Canoe Paddles Forth, Is Video on Demand in The Wake?" -- I supplicated, on behalf of the advertising community, that the Canoe-ians please enhance the operators video on demand offering (ad supported and advertiser supplied) with all kinds of interactivity to allow VOD to fulfill its destiny. Which brings me to this week's ask or tell.

In his well-articulated New York Times article, "New Efforts to Make Long Commercial Breaks Sizzle," Stuart Elliott provides a litany of broadcast network and cable network commercial pod busting experimentation (by category):

   Brief programs, called mini-sodes, micro-series or bitcoms, sponsored by marketers -- the kind of shows that interrupt commercials that interrupt shows.

    Clips, also sponsored, that combine elements of commercials and programs. Many feature cast members of the shows in which they appear.  

   Promotions for network shows that appear inside episodes of other shows, or embedded tune-ins made possible by special effects.

    Networks matching the themes or subjects of ads with the programs.

He refers to these attempts to engage the viewer as "made you look" efforts. My question to cablers, broadcasters, TV distribution platforms and those valiant oarsmen steering the Canoe is: Once you've made a viewer look at a marketer's message, wouldn't you want to convert the stare to an opportunity of engagement? And what better way to engage a viewer of a TV commercial than through interactive TV applications while they're watching their big screen in the comfort of their domicile, with beverage in one hand and the TV remote in the other.  

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