UK satellite-TV provider, BSkyB (Sky), announced Tuesday that it is launching a green button-based "bookable" and "on-demand" advertising service that will allow viewers to easily access long-form advertising. The service, which is expected to cost advertisers less than Sky's red button-based interactive TV advertising service (note: Sky will offer the new service alongside red-button advertising), and which the company says is based upon the same underlying technology as its green button-based program reminder service, will enable advertisers to prompt viewers, during a linear-TV commercial, to press the green button on the Sky remote control, in order to book longer-form content into their Sky Guide or to have that content recorded onto their DVR-equipped Sky+ or Sky+ HD set-top box.
According to Sky, viewers will be able to use the new service to access not only extended versions of ads, which will provide additional information about particular products or services, but also less overtly hard-sell content such as behind-the-scenes footage and branded entertainment. Examples cited by the company of the kind of content that could be accessed through the new service include: an extended edit of an existing linear-TV commercial that had to be cut in order to work within the time constraints of traditional linear ad breaks; a "making of" documentary, outlining how a particularly innovative ad was created; exclusive content, performances or "extras" that relate to an advertiser's products or services (Sky points out that this use of the new service would be "particularly well suited to record companies, movie studios and other media or gaming companies with access to content and talent"); and "advertiser mini-sodes in the tradition of the Nescafe couple and Oxo family."
According to Sky, long-form advertising content accessed through the new service could range in length "from two minutes to two hours." The company says that the service will also allow series-linking of advertising content for brands looking to create episodic advertising. Each piece of advertiser-created programming will be made available to Sky households with standard Sky digital set-top boxes twice a day, Sky says, and viewers will be prompted with an on-screen reminder to watch a long-form ad that they have previously booked as soon as it becomes available. However, in the 4.6 million or so households equipped with Sky's Sky+ DVR, viewers will be able to have the ad stored on their Sky+ planner for playback on-demand, the company says.
Sky says that final testing of the new service is currently underway, and that it is expected to launch in June across 50 channels in the portfolio of Sky's advertising sales arm, Sky Media, including all Sky's wholly owned channels (note: it had originally been expected to launch last spring). A number of advertisers have already signed up for the service, including Warner Bros. for "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" (PHD), T-Mobile (Mediacom), and Fox for "Ice Age 3" (Vizeum). "Throughout its history, Sky has continually sought to innovate for advertisers and provide them with more choice and greater opportunities in reaching audiences in new and engaging ways," Chloe Smith, head of interactive advertising at Sky Media, said in a prepared statement. "Green Button provides brands with the opportunity to develop high-quality long-form content catering to those audiences who want a closer relationship with particular brands, or who would value access to exclusive content which has been developed or funded by an advertiser. And with the added functionality of Sky+, they can interact with those brands at a time of their choosing." Added Rupert Britton, strategy director for content at PHD: "Increasingly we are recommending that our clients invest in the creation of content to stand out in a cluttered media landscape, particularly in an on-demand context. However, if content is king then distribution is the kingmaker and careful consideration must be paid towards how 'push' and 'pull' advertising work together. As a result, PHD and Drum have worked very closely with Sky to ensure we maximize the opportunities around green button advertising, which we feel has the potential to be a great content-delivery system for some of our clients."
