Time Warner Cable launched a VOD service called Promotions on Demand, Monday, that it says will allow viewers to browse a range of long-format on-demand advertising (organized into such channels as "Find it on Demand" and "Automotive on Demand") and then, in less than a week, receive packages of coupons and other promotional material by mail for the product or service whose advertising they have just watched. While the MSO's press release announcing the new service states that the service allows viewers to "request" promotional offers, a report in the Orange County Register claims that the service automatically sends materials to viewers whenever they access a long-format on-demand commercial. "Watch the TV commercial and coupons will be mailed to your home whether you want them or not," the Orange County Register's Tamara Chuang wrote in a column published Tuesday. "It took me a few viewings of Big O Tires' ad before I realized this. I thought the commercial was going to offer a phone number or Web site for me to ask for the 50 percent-off oil change coupon but the commercial ends with something like 'Just watch for these in your mailbox in the next few days.' I guess I’ll be getting a half dozen."
Time Warner Cable bills the new service, which it has been trialing in the Los Angeles area (it claims that the service received an "overwhelming response" from consumers and advertisers during the trial), as being especially effective because--due to the nature of the on-demand medium--it enables advertisers to reach viewers who have self-selected themselves as interested in those advertisers' products and services. "When customers get marketing materials they really want and advertisers get customers who are interested in their offers, everybody wins," Joan Gillman, president of Time Warner Cable Media Sales, said in a prepared statement. "In addition, POD can help marketers maximize their marketing dollars during this unprecedented economic downturn." The MSO says that Promotions on Demand is "the first in a series of Response Media products" that it is planning to roll out.
According to Time Warner Cable, Promotions on Demand will be rolled out in the MSO's top advertising markets (where it will be available to 3.5 million digital subscribers) and made available to "select advertisers," starting in late May. A full roll-out of the service across the MSO's digital subscriber base is planned for the third quarter. Time Warner Cable says that it will manage the service's "end-to-end experience."
