Frame Media Runs News, Ads In Online Screen Photos

Frame MediaThose screens that allow people to run a continuous loop of family photos will now include a media suite with advertising. An arm of Interpublic's Initiative has cut a deal with Frame Media to give clients such as Dr Pepper and Lionsgate a presence--running alongside a real-time information ticker and other content.

The picture frames--about the size of a computer monitor--have a wireless Internet connection that allows them to showcase news, stock quotes and ads, while photos cycle on screen. Screens with content on the top and banners on the bottom are slotted into the rotation of images.

Frame Media, the developer of the technology, and Initiative are billing it as a test. Marc Simons, manager at the Initiative unit behind the arrangement, said the agency is "looking to learn a great deal about how our brands' targets use this new medium."

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Weather updates and sports scores will join stock quotes and news alerts as real-time info appearing on the digital screens. But Frame Media also offers hundreds of "channels" covering topics such as entertainment, sports and lifestyles that consumers can choose.

Initiative client Snapple will own a "content channel" where the brand's well-known "Real Facts"--such as "A goldfish's attention span is three seconds"--that appear inside its bottle caps will fill the screens. Some 650 "Facts" will be in rotation.

Frame Media has inked deals with the majority of the companies that market the frames, allowing it to offer its content and ads next to the photos. Consumers can opt-in to the media suite upon purchase.

Initiative Innovations, the agency arm now headed by former Current Media executive Jason Meil, made the client deals, which also count Hardee's and Kia Motors.

With handheld devices now billed as the "third screen," Frame Media has taken to billing the ad/content displays as the "fourth."

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