(This article is Part II which started with The State of the TV Industry: Part I)
Let’s talk about direct marketing and how it will affect the ad industry using an integrated internet/television platform. At CES, Bill Gates spoke about the capabilities of Windows Vista on your TV viewing experience:
“TV is, of course, a big activity and one that we see software really surprising people with what it can do. The best realization of this is when we have software working on your behalf, creating an individualized video feed to you, to the screen that you’re watching…That means that the ads can be targeted to you based on the things that you’re interested in, and so therefore far more relevant, far more impactful, something that you won’t want to skip over as much as one that wouldn’t mean anything to you.” [1]
As Gates explains, it is really a question of what you’re interested in, how relevant is the Ad to you? This is the same thinking that sparked what we know as direct marketing today and I fully expect this kind of new technology to bring interactivity and direct marketing to a new level.
Now let’s talk about some innovations that could really help bridge the gap between internet and television. As previously mentioned, Windows Vista has some extraordinary capabilities, but one of the most exciting platforms that I have been reading about is called Joost™. It is described as, “…a new way of watching TV on the internet, which uses new and established technologies to provide the best of both the internet and TV worlds.” [2] There will be programs, channels and advertisements as well as features that allow you to search for programs and channels, and you can even chat with other users watching the same channel. Joost’s founder Niklas Zennstrom, who co-founded Kazaa and Skype, noted that:
“The timing, opportunity and business model are perfect to enter television right now,…high-speed Internet is now quite widespread, the television is becoming more difficult to distinguish from the computer screen.”
[2]
Check out some screen shots from Joost.
As I expressed in the prior paragraph this technology is bringing interactivity and direct marketing to a new level. “The Internet has the ability to change how and what we watch,” Zennstrom said. “On the simplest level, the History Channel should know that I prefer to watch ancient Greek history…advertisers should know that if we are both watching a program about a car race in China, I should get an ad for a car, and you should get a travel-related ad, Zennstrom said. What is less clear is whether the 30-second spot is the right way to go.” [3]
Clearly this topic is of great interest to me, but I want to invite people to join the conversation. Also please read this article by Thomas Crampton from the International Herald Tribune. I truly believe that this kind of talk will lead to the next big thing in marketing/advertising innovation, I just hope we are all a part of it.
March 5, 2007
Advertising, Technology, Television