Another Spot TV Avails Site Launched

Many companies have tried developing and marketing online tools for buying offline media, and most have failed, with New York-based eMadison being the latest casualty (MDN - https://www.mediapost.com/enews.htm?s=80448.) But that hasn't put a damper on the entrepreneurial spirits of folks at TX-based BOA Worldwide, who just launched the latest online buying system for TV spots - Avail Me.

Representatives of the company are in Las Vegas this week, introducing the site at the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show. Here's how it works.

The system is geared toward local TV stations and unwired networks, which list their premium avails online. Media buyers submit bids on them and the highest bid wins. Emails are sent to the winner and the station notifying them of the winning bids.

Anyone can go to Avail Me, but only registered buyers and sellers can access the avails page. Buyers register at the site and receive a password. Once registered, they can submit what kind of avails they're looking for and will be notified by email when they are available. Meanwhile, sellers can look at reports to determine what buyers are interested in and compile avail bundles that meet their needs.

The system, "fixes the speed to market problem. It gets premium bundles in front of buyers quicker," says Paul Gautier, Avail Me's CEO.

Buyers go to the "My Avails" page to see a list of avails and find details about them on the next page, including the station or media offering them, the program they run with, their open and close dates and the current bid. For example, a premium avail called "Longhorn Homecoming" is available from DEMO, an Austin, TX station. The avail is described as the UT homecoming, which is the broadcast of the University of Texas homecoming football game. The open and close dates are listed, along with the current bid.

There is also a value added feature, which lists the additional components advertisers get with their buy. Buy "Longhorn Homecoming" and get sponsorship of the radio broadcast, a banner flown over the stadium, collateral, including fliers placed under car windshields at the stadium and a Web banner ad on Austin360.com.

The company calls this feature the first online resource for value added avails. Value addeds are "an important part of the advertising package that generates additional revenue," says Gautier. He says buyers don't consider a deal complete until they get value addeds, but stations "are ill equipped to negotiate them, so this is a tool they can use to give buyers what they want." Availme.com helps stations develop creative value addeds that make their avails more appealing. Value addeds can be anything from free vacations to baseball tickets but they can also relate to the advertising, such as premium placements like the first commercial break during a Survivor episode.

Stations pay a fee to Avail Me for selling avail bundles. The fee is determined by market size, Gautier says, although he wouldn't disclose any numbers.

While avails are bid for online, no actual sales occur online. "The rep is still in on the deal," Gautier notes, explaining that Avail Me was built "to help the reps, not replace them." He says transactions occur the way they always have, with buyers submitting insertion orders and bills sent directly to buyers. With Avail Me, sales are set up online, but transacted offline.

Avail Me is just being launched, so it has no record to speak of. Gautier says it will proceed on a market-by-market basis with five markets signed so far: Reno, NV, Sacramento, CA, Austin, TX, Beaumont, TX and Victoria, TX. He says most or all of the stations in each market have been signed. "We want to be in all sizes of cities," he says. The company is signing up new markets at the NAB show.

- Ken Liebeskind may be reached at kenrunz@aol.com

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