The iTV Doctor Is In! What's Going on with DISH Network Advanced Advertising?

Dear Readers:

Earlier this year we checked in with the post-Higgins (that's Scott Higgins) world at DISH Network, speaking with Bruce Eisen and Chris Kuhrt about what's going on in the interactive television side of DISH. But there was one glaring omission in that conversation--DISH Network Advanced Ad Sales. And we will correct that today.

Now many of the operators in our space have distinct personalities. One of the cable companies has been (privately) re-named "The Byzantine Empire" because of a decision-tree that resembles a Byzantine maze. One of the new players in the space, unfettered by legacy hardware, is the "go-to" operator for anyone with a new idea (and they are also good friends of The iTV Doctor). And then there's DISH Network.
 
DISH, at least in the interactive television space, has always been characterized by, well, characters. And in the best tradition of old-line cable pioneers (which some would call cowboys), the DISH folks just put it out there--all the time. Whether they're tossing down Prairie Fireshots (the ungodly combination of Tabasco Sauce floating on top of a shot of tequila) at the sadly departed DISH iTV Summit, or profitably breaking every rule and resetting every precedent in interactive television, the DISH folks are in your face without apology.

So in the spirit of exploration (and with no small amount of apprehension), I spent some time with Larry Samuels, DISH general manager for advanced TV, to fill in the missing information from my earlier column--to learn what's going on with iTV advertising at DISH Network.
 

iTV Doctor: You've just celebrated your third anniversary at DISH, and you'd spent a couple years at Cablevision prior to that. But something our readers probably don't know is your background as a sports broadcaster, including a stint with "The Fellas" on Sirius, as evidenced by a not-yet-defunct Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/siriusfellas/photos/albums/my-photos/334026#mssrc... that's Larry on the right with The Fellas and Andy Garcia). Tell us a little about that.

Samuels: When I was working for PVI (Princeton Video Image--the yellow-line-on-the-football-field folks) in 2001-2003, a friend went over to Sirius, and he knew my passion in college was to be a broadcaster. Well, my career had taken another path, and I had joined NBC Sports in a TV production capacity. But Seth (my friend) set up a meeting with the head of Sirius programming at the time--we went to dinner, and I basically didn't say a word. They say that in sales, the most important thing is what the other person says. Well I took that lesson to heart and he did all the talking. He told stories for hours and hours and then said afterwards that it was one of the greatest meetings he'd ever had.

Nothing really came of it right then, but a year later I was going through one of those what-do-you-want-to-do-with-your-life moments, and I wrote a list. The radio thing was still at the top of the list, so I called that guy and he connected me with the sports director at Sirius. They brought me in and let me start doing overnight sports reports, and it started growing from there. Funny commentaries initially, then I became the anchor guy on their sports center show, and when Sirius got the NFL contract I did the Monday night pre-game show. And the talk show, "The Fellas." And all this stuff just completely took off around me--just a surreal experience, the right place at the right time for me.

I was able to turn that lark into a four-year run of being on national radio. In the end, I left because radio simply doesn't pay very well. I figured it was time to go back to "work." But it was an experience that I'll cherish for the rest of my life.

iTV Doctor: Tell us about your most interesting interview.

Samuels: I don't know if it was my most interesting interview, but I had a very funny interview with Gene Simmons of Kiss. At that time he was promoting the Indy (car) Racing League. He was really, really pushing Indy Racing. It was a phone interview. I set it up with, "Welcome to our program to a member of one of the greatest rock-and-roll bands of all time." He promptly corrected me to say that Kiss was the GREATEST rock-and-roll band of all time, and then he just went on and on about Indy Racing--he just talked by himself. I couldn't even ask a question! Every time we tried to bring up Kiss, he changed the subject.

Yet, as only Gene Simmons can do, he made something very boring, very funny--simply with the sound of his voice. To a lot of people, the most interesting voice in the world belongs to them, and they never tire of
hearing it.

iTV Doctor: OK, you spent some time at Cablevision, and now you've been at DISH for three years. What has changed for DISH Network interactive advertising in the time you've been with DISH Network
Advanced TV?

Samuels: When we came here, it was a fun time. DISH had been outsourcing their ad sales for several years. In late 2007 they brought in Michael Finn from MTV Networks to start up the ad sales business. Michael brought in Marc Krok from NBC, and I joined shortly thereafter. I was the only one who had an interactive television background from my time with the terrific folks at Cablevision. I came in with relationships in the space and a background in iTV. They also hired Caroline Horner, a brilliant woman who built our data business. And iTV thrives on data. And over time, as the business started to grow, Melissa Devlin, who was previously a creative director, came in to handle direct design and structure. Adam Perlis was a production guy at NBC Sports (and no, he didn't do any announcing...) who gets the ins and outs of TV production. We're starting to do more original design for our clients, and now we've hit our stride.

iTV Doctor: Can you give us a sense of the growth in DISH interactive advertising since you're been there?

Samuels: In 2008, we did nine "microsite-type" interactive television campaigns. In 2009, we did 27. In 2010, we did 55 campaigns--all with marquee national advertisers.

iTV Doctor: Can you describe the different interactive ad formats DISH now has available?

Samuels: When we first got here, the business was set up for really basic, really simple templated applications and experiences. What we did was start to push the envelope and try a lot of new concepts for our advertisers.

When you look at DISH iTV as an offering, the first thing that makes us stand out is our telescoping :30 spots. You'll see an overlay on the screen that says, "to learn/to get/to win/to buy, press select," and you go from that spot into the experience. You leave the channel, and come back to that same channel.

iTV Doctor: You have telescoping to an enhanced experience from either a :30 or a :60 spot. What kind of experiences?

Samuels: You'll come into a dedicated brand experience that is essentially a microsite on television. Within the microsite we can include a lot of different features: the main page can be branded however you want, and then we can put in video galleries, info pages, tcommerce, dealer locators, contests, RFI's, games--pretty much anything and everything.

iTV Doctor: A few years ago, DISH raised the bar for all interactive advertising with your campaign for Nike Zoom. You pre-loaded the subscribers' DVR's with video assets to enhance the experience, and even ran a linear channel to do basically the same thing for non-DVR subscribers. Are you still doing that?

Samuels: We do a lot of campaigns like that. Channels 98 and 99 on DISH are earmarked for interactive television. We do this for a majority of the Unilever campaigns we're running--we loop content on those channels and then lay interactive triggers on top. For example, when a viewer enters a branded experience via an interactive trigger on the looping channel 99 or 98, the content continues to play in the background and the interactive features are then layered on top to create the branded main screen. Viewers can then click on these main screen buttons to navigate wherever they want within the application. These "looping" channels run 24x7.

iTV Doctor: That seems very similar to what DirecTV does on a couple of channels now. Don't you and DirecTV have a joint venture for this kind of thing?

Samuels: That's what ASAP (Advanced Satellite Advertising Platform) is all about. It's essentially the same format on both DISH and DirecTV, delivering the same consumer experience. DirecTV puts an overlay telling viewers to tune to channel 111 or 112 for more information. DISH uses the telescope feature. But to the consumer, it's virtually the same experience. The intent is to create the highest common denominator to as many homes as possible, and with ASAP that means we can reach 30 million homes with the same message, delivered in the same way, using the same creative and video resources. What you'll see on Ch. 99 on DISH and on Ch. 112 on DirecTV is the same long-form content, where the consumer will be prompted to click on a trigger for a deeper interactive experience. And in that we can include information galleries, lead generation, games, and more. It's a really easy way to reach households interactively. I think we're on the right track, because one of the challenges of interactive television advertising is that every platform is different--some use EBIF, some use widgets, some have their own custom platform, and on and on. But with ASAP the advertiser can reach 30 million homes with the same creative, the same experience and the same message.

ASAP has one point of contact throughout the entire process. We use the resources available to us to work with the advertiser, to determine what their strategy is, and then our project management group will oversee the project from beginning to end. It's easy and transparent to the advertiser, and we'll generate one post-campaign report on the results from all 30 million homes.

iTV Doctor: Are you saying there is one team that will design and modify the way the ad looks and works on both DISH and DirecTV? Will that team actually build the application for both platforms?

Samuels: The actual coders are at each satellite company, but they're working from a design that follows the protocols for both platforms, and optimizes the experience for all viewers.

iTV Doctor: How does interactive advertising on DISH Network compare to the other interactive ad opportunities available out there?

Samuels: We have roughly 14 million homes on DISH and when considering things in aggregate, we probably have the strongest platform. When you look at the marketplace, everybody has their own strengths. DirecTV brings the greatest number of interactive households; Cablevision has the best local cable platform. But when you look at DISH, a few things stand out: 1) we're truly national; 2) we have telescoping commercials, which some others can't do; 3) within the applications, we can bring in the VOD element, which some others can't do; 4) from a post-campaign reporting standpoint, we're delivering the largest measurement base.

Here is a link to our site with a video walk-through of a campaign we did with DIY Network: http://www.dishmediasales.com/interactive-tv/default.aspx.

Rentrak processes second-by-second data from 5 million digital set-top boxes across the country. And what's so incredible about that is that you get a very precise look at exactly what's happening with your campaigns, including the number of impressions within the experience. Because we start with interactive :30 spots, we can provide "click-through" reports, similar to what they're getting online, so you can figure out which dayparts, which programs, which days of the week are most effective for your product. For example, if an advertiser is running three different creatives for his spots, depending on the network and program, we can show him which creative is doing the best job at driving viewers to the interactive experience, and show him exactly what the viewers are doing when they get there. Same for different shows and different networks. The data play is huge, and is every bit as valuable as the interactive experience.

iTV Doctor: If you were a national advertiser, and you wanted to get the maximum reach, how would you do it? What kind of problems would you encounter?

Samuels: One way you can do it is with ASAP--a common solution with the largest audience. Also, there is another firm in the space--BrightLine--that is setting itself above the rest with a deep understanding of what each and every platform can deliver. What they do is work with advertisers to build out the goals and objectives and the creative look, and they project-manage across DISH, DirecTV, Rovi, TiVo, video game players, cable and more.

Delivery Agent (with Dave Rudnick and Pat Ivers from The Band) did the same thing with Victory Motorcycles, covering a wide range of platforms. They did all the design work on their end. They're obviously very familiar with our capabilities and they could deliver us files that we could easily and quickly get on the air.

iTV Doctor: After years of scraping by in the "test" and "new media" portion of the clients' ad budgets, is interactive advertising FINALLY mainstream?

Samuels: It's starting to become mainstream: we're actually doing upfront interactive deals. But maybe more importantly, my phone rings now--people actually call me to see what we can do. That's a change from my first year when I did all the calling. And ad agencies are building out teams to focus on this stuff--to answer client questions and to come up with ideas.

iTV Doctor: One of my hotbuttons these days is the integration of handheld devices. Are the advertisers looking longingly at everything that can be done on iPhone and iPad, and maybe before the bloom is even on the rose for iTV they've picked another flower?

Samuels: That is something that is on our minds, but the marketplace is changing so fast that we simply concentrate on making the best use of our platform to deliver value to advertisers. And at the end of the day, this is TELEVISION. And that's still the medium that delivers the greatest number of eyeballs and the highest levels of engagement.

But everything will evolve. One of the coolest things I see is the use of the QR code. If you fold one into an ad or into an interactive application, you can let the consumer make a quick, easy and secure purchase right then and there. Take a picture of the QR code with your phone and you're taken right to the "buy" page, and you're off to the races!

iTV Doctor: Take yourself about two years into the future: describe how DISH Network interactive advertising fits into the landscape.

Samuels: DISH is a leader in the space, and the holy grail for me and everybody else in the space is interactive addressable advertising. When we can blend interactive overlays into truly addressable advertising to a very targeted audience with a very targeted interactive experience, backed by the data products we have now--that is a POWERFUL product!

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The iTV Doctor is *Rick Howe*, who provides interactive television consulting services to programmers and advertisers. He is the recipient of a CTAM Tami Award for retention marketing and this year was nominated to Cable Pioneers. He is also the co-author of a patent for the use of multiscreen mosaics in EPG's. Endorsed by top cable and satellite distributors, "Dr" Howe still makes house calls, and the first visit is always free. His services include product development, distribution strategy and the development of low-cost interactive applications for rapid deployment across all platforms. Have a question for the iTV Doctor? Email him at itvdoctor@itvt.com