Commentary

Contact: i-vu's UPDO

Earlier this summer, Lifetime served up its first interactive ads alongside a blow-out. To promote its centerpiece summer series, "Beach Girls," the network ran interactive promos via the i-vu network, which delivers programming from ABC, BBC Worldwide, and Fashion TV to 520 interactive touch screens in high-end hair salons across the United States. Salon customers were able to interact with the "Beach Girls" ads by touching a button on the screen, about the size of a VHS tape, to watch a 30-second clip from the show.

The i-vu ad also included spots from two Lifetime original movies airing in July, "Dive from Clausen's Pier" and "Murder in the Hamptons."

Hair salons are a little-explored ad arena - aside from the typical coffee table stocked with magazines. Rather than skim through pictures of models with impossibly angled haircuts, women participating in the program had another option for their downtime. I-vu ran a series of Nokia ads in the spring that generated a 33 percent response rate, according to Mike Anstey, CEO and president of i-vu. Numbers were not compiled at press time for the Lifetime campaign, but if successful, the network plans to add i-vu to its regular marketing mix.

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