Two interesting things to report today. First, 24/7 Real Media seems to have stolen another one of DoubleClick’s clients. The company announced yesterday that Vivendi Universal Net USA will be
migrating its network of popular entertainment sites, including RollingStone.com, The Flipside Network and MP4.com, to Open AdStream.
The deal comes on the heels of another big win last week, in
which ABC Owned TV Stations migrated their ten sites to Open AdStream CENTRAL from DART. All of the above sites say the switch is based on “cost savings and reliability of service,” but the Vivendi
switch is one of the most attractive and powerful technology deals yet for 24/7 Real Media.
The second piece of news is slightly more entertaining (if not quite as promising for the online ad
industry). TiVo said that a recent video Showcase promoting the blockbuster comedy "Austin Powers In Goldmember" received the highest viewership yet of any advertainment offering, with two-thirds of
subscriber households viewing the showcase during the two-week campaign. Viewers of the Showcase spent an average of six minutes interacting with the promotional videos stored on the TiVo hard drive.
According to TiVo officials, the consumer response to the Austin Powers Showcase demonstrates that advertisers can be successful in “an environment where the viewer is in charge, if they
deliver messages that are both relevant and entertaining." The Goldmember Showcase was comprised of nine video elements, including the full-length trailer that was otherwise only seen in theatres,
and a personalized message to TiVo subscribers from Austin Powers star and creator, Mike Myers.
Five of the video elements were first available to TiVo households on July 15. The four additional
videos were used to "refresh" the Showcase on July 22. Overall, the Goldmember Showcase remained on the TiVo service for a total of 14 days.
"Refreshing the Showcase with additional video had
a tremendous impact on viewership," said Brodie Keast, SVP/GM of the TiVo Service. "New visits were generated from subscribers who had passed on the Showcase previously and many subscribers returned
when they were notified that new video had been delivered."