Interactive Ads See Surge In Popularity Over Christmas
December saw a surge of popularity amongst viewers for interactive TV advertisements, with a flurry of activity over the Christmas period leaving some advertisers struggling to cope with demand, according to iTV specialists Press Red.
According to Press Red, a campaign for Grolsch lager was pulled from broadcast after only three days after the offer of a branded beer glass attracted an unprecedented response from consumers.
Simon Bevan, communications planning director at Vizeum, who planned and booked the campaign, said: “We expected viewers to be receptive to the free glass promotion and, using previous direct response experience, we had a fair idea of the level of response it might feasibly attain. However, the actual response exceeded all our expectations, including Coors and the broadcasters.”
Grolsch were not alone in experiencing huge responses, however, with car manufacturer Skoda receiving unprecidented feedback from viewers. Kirsten Ireland, Skoda’s communications manager said: “We have been taken aback by quantity of the responses our interactive TV campaign has achieved.” while Jim Mullen, head of interactive at Arc, who set up a campaign on behalf of Disney said: “The press red campaign has totally surpassed our expectations with both the ease with which we got the campaign to air and the very satisfying level of feedback from viewers.”
Commenting on the success of festive interactive campaigns, Ben Nicholls, business development manager at Press Red said: “Whilst the volume of campaigns and the positive results our clients have been achieving is great news, what has really encouraged us is the up take of the Mini-DAL format since we launched it, and the increased level of creativity Mini-DALs have bought to the interactive TV advertising market. With more clients dipping their toes in the water and generating such fantastic levels of response, there seems no doubt that volume is set to grow rapidly throughout 2005”
Press Red allows advertisers to create, test and deploy their own interactive campaigns across multiple broadcasters using their BlackBox software, accredited by Sky Interactive for use by agencies in creating campaigns for its Mini-DAL screens. Advertisers can use BlackBox to create campaigns with rich graphics and dedicated video or audio channels for use by ITV, Sky, Five, Flextech and UKTV channels on digital satellite (see Press Red Launches New Interactive Tool For Agencies).
Press Red: 08700 136 136 www.pressred.tv
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