NBC.com Launches New Video Ad Formats, Targeting Solutions, Full-Episode Widget

Broadcast network NBC's broadband video-enabled NBC.com Web site unveiled several new advertising capabilities and a new full-episode widget Tuesday (note: NBC recently announced that NBC.com's Rewind player had generated over a billion full episode streams over the past 18 months--see the story posted on itvt.com on April 16th). The company bills the new advertising capabilities as allowing brands to "stay front and center as users interact with the content around their favorite shows." They include:
--"Choose an Ad," which NBC says will allow viewers to select the ad they view, thus enabling advertisers to create custom ads for the same or separate product lines, as well as giving viewers the opportunity to play one extended ad followed by a commercial-free presentation or a traditional ad followed by a limited-interruption presentation.
--"Pause Unit," which will allow a sponsor's ad to appear next to a piece of video whenever the latter is paused by the viewer.
--"Push Back Unit," which will allow an expandable 300x50 ad unit to appear under a clip within the inline video: when viewers roll their cursor over it, the ad unit will expand to 300x250 (viewers will, of course, be able to close the 300x250 ad and resume viewing the clip).
--"Rail Ad," which will frame the NBC.com home page and which NBC says will create "a unique opportunity to surround NBC.com's content offering with the advertiser's unique look-and-feel."
--"Pushdown Ad," which will replace NBC.com's current FSA (full site arrival) offering. NBC says that this "larger premium ad unit" will use a widely accepted ad spec, thus allowing for more innovative and creative brand messaging in a user-initiated expandable unit."
--"Pop Out Video Player," which NBC says creates a compact viewing screen, "allowing users to multitask while watching their favorite clips and shows."
--Photo Interstitial," which NBC says will allow advertisers to insert an ad unit into the photo stream of a new NBC.com slide show functionality.

"We believe that it is possible to give our users a rewarding entertainment experience and provide our advertising partners an effective marketing environment," Vivi Zigler, president of NBC Universal Digital Entertainment, said in a prepared statement. "These new creative units, along with our current offerings, give our clients tremendous flexibility." Added Peter Naylor, SVP of NBC Universal Digital Media Sales: "The new suite of products offers the advertisers the best opportunity to tell their story in a variety of ad spaces that are adjacent to our great content."

NBC also says that NBC.com will shortly launch a series of "comprehensive, data-informed" targeting solutions that will leverage multiple data sources. According to the company, targetable segments will include behavioral, geographical and demographic variations. Once this new functionality is enabled, NBC says, NBC.com advertisers will be able to target groups of users using a menu-style selection, matching their target to NBC audience clusters or custom segments and enabling NBC.com to locate the advertiser's target or in-market audience. The new targeting capabilities are slated to begin launching during the current quarter and to be fully ready in time for the 2009/10 Upfronts.

NBC.com's new full-episode widget, meanwhile, which NBC says builds on the success of its short-clip video widgets, will allow viewers to watch ad-supported full episodes of NBC shows on their own Web sites, blogs and social media sites.

In other recent news from NBC.com: Last week, the site premiered an original broadband video series that complements its primetime show, "Heroes." Entitled "Heroes: Nowhere Man," the new Web series centers on a "Heroes" character called Eric Doyle who has the ability to control people as if they were marionettes. The series follows him as he attempts to lead a normal life without using his special abilities. According to NBC, Doyle's story will also extend into other parts of the Interactive Emmy-winning "'Heroes' Digital Experience": the latest "Heroes" iStory provides additional details about Doyle that help viewers solve various "Heroes" mysteries; and the character also appears in chapters 107 and 133 of the "Heroes" graphic novel.

New episodes of "Nowhere Man" will launch each Monday throughout its run. The series was directed by Chris Hanada and Tanner Kling, written by Timm Keppler and Jim Martin, and stars David H. Lawrence,
Brian Kimmet and Amy Sloan.