ITV has launched an Ad Innovations programme which will combine research into emerging advertising formats around the world, and concept testing research into new opportunities.
The broadcaster has been trialling different advertising formats and rich media content opportunities over the past few months on broadband, exclusively with Opera and Decipher.
The results will see Opera’s advertising clients given exclusive access to the archive section on the new ITV broadband portal for the first three months from launch in early spring.
The archive will include over 1000 hours of ITV shows at launch which will increase as the back catalogue is digitised.
The launch is phase one of ongoing development and, says ITV, marks the true convergence of television advertising and broadband.
Simon Orpin, newly appointed integrated planning director at ITV, said: “ITV recognises that the television of the future has already become the television of today, with the rapid evolution from the multi-channel world of digital TV to a multi-function world where real-time broadcast is now just one of the ways in which consumers enjoy great programming.
“As part of our planning for new channels and content to embrace this opportunity we have identified the amazing potential for a range of new advertising formats and new revenue opportunities around PVRs, VOD, broadband and mobile content.
“Having Opera on board from the outset has enabled us to model different advertising formats and ultimately provide an advertiser-funded model across the new ITV broadband portal so that users can view ITV’s rich heritage of content for free. We’re hoping to announce more media partnerships as a result of our Ad Innovations project in the coming months.”
ITV says that these different advertising formats could offer the potential of new income streams for ITV as new platforms and formats will offer the attractive potential of associating with television content in a deeper and more continual way via targeted advertising, more precise viewing data and more varied brand interaction with consumers.
ITV plans to hold monthly update briefing sessions with customers to share the findings of its research.
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com