StreamingCable TV Increasing Use by Ken Liebeskind, MediaPost Staff Writer Everyone is familiar with movie clips streamed by the studios to promote their latest films, but now cable TV
networks are getting into the game, too, streaming program clips.
The most exciting campaign comes from The History Channel, which in late January bought space on a number of sites to promote
Boys’ Toys, a Modern Marvels series that ran for a week on the network beginning Jan. 28. The campaign, from Horizon Interactive, a division of Horizon Media, featured Eyeblasters, which clicked to a
player that played a stream. The campaign also involved PreviewIt, which built the player and embedded the clip.
The campaign ran on Hollywood.com, Maxim Online, PopularMechanics.com, Scifi.com,
SportingNews.com, and Starwars.com. “The idea was to try and reach men on very male, gadget type sites,” says Olivia Gushin, interactive media supervisor at Horizon. She says SportingNews did very
well.
The streaming element was the 30-second TV commercial for the show, which played after users were intrigued by the Eyeblaster. “It was the first campaign of its kind for The History
Channel,” Gushin says, noting that the Eyeblaster led to double-digit click-throughs to the stream.
“The average viewing time was more than 30 seconds, so they watched it more than once,” she
says. There was a viral element on the player that sent the player and the stream to friends.
Last year, The Discovery Channel used audio streams on two sites to promote Land of the Mammoth, a
documentary program. Creative Media, Discovery’s agency, used two Cyberep sites, Radiowave and TheDial, to play radio spots. Cable TV had been using radio heavily to promote its programs, so the idea
was to use streaming audio to play the same spots online. The spots were targeted to 25-54 year old men. Other networks aren’t running streaming campaigns on other sites, but use their own sites to
stream clips. “We have 6 million uniques coming to our site everyday, so we don’t need to go to other sites,” says Stephen Early, vice president of Eonline marketing for the E! Network.
He says
streams are used to integrate Eonline.com with the network. A number of streams are played, including 30-to-60-second clips from ENews Daily, the popular entertainment news program that recently ran a
clip of Bruce Willis talking about the premiere of his new movie, Hart’s War. The network also streams clips from its awards shows, which run before major awards shows on the networks, such as the
Oscars and the Grammys. And it runs clips from Fashion Police, a show that looks at the fashion worn by the stars.
Thirty percent of the MTVi.com audience is broadband based, which makes it a
good one for streaming, according to Allan Infeld, a senior vice president. “We stream clips from Real World and other MTV shows and short clips from music videos,” he says.
EmailGroups Get Tough on Spam by Amy Corr, MediaPost Staff Writer Within a two-week period last month, three organizations—MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System), TRUSTe and ePrivacy Group, and the DMA
(Direct Marketing Association)—released services or guidelines created to protect individuals from spam.
MAPS launched a new service called The Nonconfirming Mailing List (NML). This database
holds IP addresses of websites that send email addresses to mailing lists without the consent of those that own the email addresses. Most people are allowed free access to this database (although a
contract must first be signed), and pricing for certain types of businesses (not for profit, small businesses, etc.) varies.
Most subscribers to MAPS services are online websites looking to block
spam from entering their system. Susan Tait, manager of online operations, says that “an IP address is not listed on any of our lists until it has been proven conclusively that there is a problem.”
Tait added that MAPS “removes an IP address as soon as it has been demonstrated to us that the problem has been fixed.”
NextTRUSTe and ePrivacy partnered to launch Trusted Sender, a verification
tool that allows consumers to separate their legitimate email from spam. Here’s how it works: Companies become certified (at a cost of $4,000 to $14,000, depending on size), and each email after
certification will contain a seal in the right-hand corner of the email.
After clicking on this seal, a window pops up and the email recipient is given the opportunity to answer the following
three questions: Does the Trust Stamp or Text Signature in the email contain the following information?, Is this email address yours?, and Is the content of the email related to the subject? Once you
answer yes to all questions, you can click Verify. Your window then tells you that the identity and the authenticity of the email has been verified and that the company which sent you the original
email is a Trusted Sender in good standing. TRUSTe certifies the participants and ePrivacy supplies the technology for the seal to be placed in the emails.
The DMA also released a set of
guidelines for email marketers to follow. The guidelines are straightforward, and many email companies adhere to these, if not more stringent rules themselves. Some notable points include: Having the
email identify the marketer, along with having a subject line which isn’t misleading to the recipient; opt-out options must be clearly stated as well as the choice to keep third-party marketers from
buying your email address; also included in the email must be the company’s street address or a link to their website that contains that address.
WirelessmLife Goes On by Adam
Bernard, MediaPost Staff Writer What is mLife? If you were one of the many people watching the Super Bowl, you had to have wondered what on earth those ads were talking about. Viewers saw everyone
from the elderly to the youth talking about either having mlife, not being able to live without mLife, or wanting mLife, the whole while never actually saying what mLife was.
The campaign got
mixed reviews. Either you loved it, and logged on to find out what mLife was, or you hated it and thought each ad marked the perfect time to get some food, or use the bathroom. No matter what people
thought, it got everyone talking.
If you don’t know by now, mLife is simply AT&T’s latest wireless venture. The site doesn’t seem to give a lot in the way of information about mLife, but does
allow a user to sign up to get updates on mLife, and perhaps a better definition. One thing is for sure about mLife, AT&T wants some younger users.
Of all the features of mLife, the most
prevalent seems to be new ringtones and graphics. Graphics are limited to five, but ringtones are unlimited, meaning each person can have a different ring—two features younger mobile users will
undoubtedly love.
The calling rates and plans don’t seem to be anything new or extraordinary, in fact, there really isn’t anything about mLife that makes a person think it’s a new product, other
than the ad campaign.
AT&T’s campaign made their product sound revolutionary, but most everyone I know lives a mobile life now anyways, so what’s the big deal? I guess any campaign that has the
rest of us talking could be considered a success.
iTVRegaining Momentum Jack Myers Report, MEDIA Exclusive Several recent announcements by leading digital technology developers are
generating a resurgence of interactive television initiatives by advertisers and agencies. The most significant developments continue to be led by Wink Communications, which has expanded to nearly 6
million homes through satellite and cable distributors.
Wink offers a very basic interactive capability that enables viewers to register with the service and, through a simple click of the remote
control, respond to special offers from programmers and advertisers. Several weeks ago, Wink announced a content service in association with Digeo, a new company founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul
Allen. The Digeo service enables Wink subscribers to gain access to news, weather, sports, and entertainment services on demand through special full-time digital channels available initially on
Charter Communications cable systems in California.
Since Digeo announced its joint venture with Wink in January, the subscriber base has increased from 100,000 to 250,000. According to Rich
Halber, Digeo VP for Advertising and Commerce, the service is proving to generate a “very good response on interactive ads, with a 2.5 percent click-through rate and 60 percent conversion rate.”
Advertisers include GM Chevy Trucks, Tide, Nintendo Game Cube, Bloomberg, and Unilever. Starcom is actively engaged in testing the service on behalf of its clients.
Digeo also broke new ground
with its announcement that it had developed a “sidecar” product that would enable cable operators to market advanced interactive services such as personal video recorder capabilities. Advertisers and
agencies, as well as media companies, have believed that interactive and personal video recorder technology would not gain market acceptance until mid-decade due to slow roll-out by cable operators.
The Digeo product could change that.
According to Digeo management, the company’s Broadband Media Center 8000 will incorporate a central processing unit and hard drive that can offer consumers
rich recording and interactive applications. This will include telephony, TiVo-like personal video recording, entertainment services such as digital photos and music, and wireless home networking.
“These applications and services are more compelling than those available on existing digital set top boxes and satellite services,” says Bert Kolde, Digeo SVP.
Cable operators have been
increasingly concerned about competitive inroads being made by Echostar and DirecTV, which have been aggressively promoting PVR capability. Cable operators can be expected to respond quickly to these
threats to their core subscriber relationships. Several agencies are also preparing for the potential of rapid iTV and PVR expansion. Starcom has been a leader with Wink and Digeo, as well as TiVo.
Mediacom and Carat Interactive have also been developing proprietary experiences on behalf of several of their clients.
In the next several months, TV Guide, AOL, and Microsoft will roll out new
television-based interactive initiatives, which will significantly raise the profile of advertiser opportunities. Although the media economy remains cool, interactive television is providing an early
sign of growth and vitality.