etc.tv--a company which offers a "telescopic advertising" service that allows hyperlinking, via overlaid visual cues, from 30-second linear commercial spots to long-form advertising content hosted on cable operators' VOD platforms (note: the service also allows advertising content to be bookmarked for later viewing, and provides what etc.tv describes as "near real-time tracking"), as well as to tcommerce opportunities, and which is currently available to around 1.9 million consumers in Quebec through a deployment on cable operator Videotron's illico digital cable service--recently announced that interactive ads it powered for Budweiser, during sports network RDS's broadcast of the Super Bowl, set "new interactive TV advertising records."
According to the company, the broadcast marked the first time in history that network commercial avails for the Super Bowl were enabled with interactive functionality: viewers could hyperlink directly from traditional 30-second spots on RDS to a three-minute "mini-documentary" featuring Budweiser's US commercials. "Our data reports levels of interaction with the Budweiser Super Bowl spots at a rate five times higher than average campaigns we have seen going back over two-and-a-half years," etc.tv VP and general manager, Ian MacLean, said in a prepared statement. "And interestingly, the highest rates of interaction were among viewers of RDS programming in high definition. Clearly, viewers want to know more. We are truly excited."
