• The Wall Street Journal, Monday, November 16, 2009 7:46 PM

Companies such as Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and Kraft Foods are increasingly turning to technologies that add interactive capabilities -- games, coupons and informational videos -- to their TV pitches. The interactive features are available from cable and satellite services as well as from TiVo and other tech companies.

"We are very bullish on interactive ads. It's the digital online experience on your big-screen TV," says Rob Master, Unilever's U.S. media director. Unilever -- maker of brands such as Dove, Lipton and Vaseline -- has done more than 40 interactive ad campaigns and says all of its brands are involved.

For instance, after discovering that young men were confused about how to use Axe body spray, Unilever used an interactive TV spot on DirecTV and Dish TV to show them how to apply the product. Viewers of a traditional ad saw an overlay that asked them to go to Channel 115 to learn more about the action in the ad. There they saw a menu of videos and Flash-enabled pages that could be navigated using the remote. Unilever deployed the ad to 60 million homes in July. In a few weeks, 3.5 million people watched the video and spent an average of five minutes playing with the ad.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »