DVR vendor/service provider, TiVo, announced Monday that in Spring 2006 it plans to offer what it says will be the first television-based advertising search solution. According to the company, the solution will leverage the TiVo service's existing programming search capabilities to deliver targeted advertising via broadband or broadcast to subscribers who specify that they want to view ads for particular kinds of products. TiVo says that it has drawn on the expertise of a number of media and advertising agency partners in developing the new service, including Interpublic Media, OMD, Starcom Mediavest Group, The Richards Group, and Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of the US's largest cable MSO, Comcast. The new solution uses agency research and development techniques to determine relevant categories of interest--such as automotive, travel, telecommunications, and consumer packaged goods--and to determine appropriate pricing models.
According to TiVo, whereas TV advertising today is almost entirely delivered adjacent to mass programming, its new solution will allow companies to deliver TV advertising on-demand and targeted to consumers, without the limitations of traditional TV media placement. The company says that the solution will allow advertisers to reach TiVo subs who are in the market for a specific product or service: those subs will be able to find the ads that interest them by conducting searches for products by category or keyword, using the same keyword search techniques as are offered with Internet advertising. TiVo claims that this approach will result in increased relevancy for the consumer, and in efficient, measurable results for the advertiser.
TiVo says that the new advertising search solution will provide a "heightened viewer experience" that is designed to provide non-intrusive, relevant, interactive advertising on an opt-in basis. It says that subscribers who use the new search capability will retain control over their viewing experience through the creation of a viewer-created profile via their TiVo box that will allow them to receive ads based on their interests. "TiVo intends to capture the best of the Internet advertising model and create a unique advertising product for the television medium that will provide measurable results," Davina Kent, TiVo's VP of national advertising sales, said in a prepared statement. "TiVo is committed to working with our advertisers, their agencies and our cable partners to develop new and innovative advertising solutions."
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