Canoe To Launch Interactive Ad Platform In '09 Or Early 2010

Hours after word emerged Thursday that a missed deadline would be a long-term suspension, Canoe Ventures CEO David Verklin offered another timetable. Verklin said Canoe would launch an interactive advertising platform in 10 million homes by the end of this year -- or the first quarter of 2010 at the latest.

"Canoe is fundamentally an interactive television company for the next 12 months," he said.

The coming platform is expected to have an icon appear on screen in some form, prompting a viewer to click through to an advertiser-sponsored landing area. There, the marketer could offer a chance to get a special offer or other enticements. "A lead-generation application" is how Verklin characterized it for the advertiser.

Interactive advertising is not new, having been deployed by cable operators in many forms for some time. But during an appearance at the New York Promax/BDA conference, Verklin said that Canoe is upping the ante by allowing an advertiser to use it "coast to coast."

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While some legislators may have questions about Canoe Ventures potentially violating consumer privacy, the company's CEO said it would be relentless in efforts to guarantee protection. even issuing "a customer Bill of Rights."

Verklin suggested that Canoe may be unfairly "lumped together" with the online ad industry, which has been criticized for its use of behavioral targeting and cookies. He added that Canoe's coming interactive advertising platform will be "fundamentally an opt-in activity." That differs from some online ad networks that track consumers' Internet use without their knowledge, he said.

If a Canoe program "feels too creepy to you," the company will allow an opt-out.

A second iteration of interactive advertising is slated for some time in 2010, Verklin said. That would allow viewers to participate in polls or cast votes with a remote control, he said. Presumably, advertisers would sponsor the opportunities.

Ultimately, Canoe hopes interactive advertising will allow for t-commerce -- the purchase of products with a few clicks of the remote, Verklin said.

The planned launch of interactive advertising this year in only 10 million homes marks an apparent reduced ambition on the part of Canoe. It had promised a national addressable advertising platform by last month in 60 million homes. Now indefinitely suspended, as first reported by Multichannel News, that system was tabbed Community Addressable Messaging (CAM).

Canoe, which is owned by the six largest cable operators, has access to their combined 60 million set-top-boxes to power its initiatives -- and those can track TV viewing behavior. But Verklin said Canoe has no interest in monitoring what people watch.

Still, the company has indicated that it would use the set-top boxes to provide second-by-second ratings data, which presumably will be gathered anonymously. With interactive advertising, any data Canoe obtains will not be sold, Verklin noted. And if it is, that transaction will be via a third-party data house.

For addressable-advertising opportunities, Canoe will collect data allowing targeting in much the same way marketers garner information for direct mail. Verklin said if consumers are "comfortable" with those mailings, Canoe should provide a similar feeling.

Verklin said Canoe will still launch a version of CAM at some point, but did not provide specifics. He reiterated that addressable advertising has the potential to invigorate the ad business.

During trials, he added that Canoe was able to get a CAM service to work in 3 million households, scattered throughout 70 of the country's 2,400 cable zones (or geographic areas). But operational hurdles made it "very narrow in the way it could be used," leading to its suspension, although he was upbeat about CAM R&D. "I'm actually quite proud of it," he said.

CAM promised an opportunity for an advertiser to run "split copy." An ad plugging one product could run in affluent homes at the same time that a different spot appeared in lower-income households.

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