Guess What, Marketers? Interactive TV Is Actually Here

The interactive TV dream has been just around the corner for almost two decades. We’ve long imagined, but never developed, a TV that allows us to transition seamlessly from watching the Yankees game to an online music video to pushing a button and ordering an advertiser’s product. In other words, a TV that delivers the ultimate marketer’s dream: brand awareness to consideration to purchase over various platforms – whether sitting on the couch or commuting to work.

That’s why — as the media and marketing industries recently convened for this year’s Digital Content NewFronts, where digital publishers pitch ad buyers in an effort to ape the TV industry’s upfronts–I didn’t hear any mentions of the buzz phrase, “Interactive TV.”

However, here’s the strange thing: As the NewFront presentations rolled out, they proved that iTV is actually here; marketers have just been looking at the wrong screen. It turns out iTV is often a laptop, mobile or tablet experience, unless it arrives on a “proper” TV screen through a broadband-enabled device like an Xbox or Roku. It’s not coming through the cable operators that, at one time, were thought to hold the keys to iTV.

Nielsen’s March Cross Platform Report recently dove into the deep end of this trend, describing the five million homes in the U.S. that it classifies as “Zero TV” because they eschew traditional cable or satellite viewing — often for streaming alternatives. Two thirds of these “Zero TV” homes consume video content on other devices, and the distribution across age groups of “Zero TV” homes is not as concentrated as you might think. Almost two-thirds are age 44 and under, but a healthy chunk — more than one-third — fell into older demographics.

Add this group to the tens of millions of people in the U.S. who watch traditional TV but also use their smartphone to access Hulu, for example, and their iPad to stream TV from Comcast CMCSA -0.92%, and what you have is a burgeoning iTV market. It’s just not iTV as we might have once envisioned it.

Why should marketers care about iTV? It’s simple – the platform is so precise in targeting and measurability that it gives a new meaning to the old advertising adage: the ability to target the right message at the right time to the right audience.

Addressable advertising, as it is called, is one of the great promises of iTV. Unlike TV advertising, which is, more or less, a mass medium, and provides minimal feedback on how it actually performs, addressable advertising can provide marketers with targeting that is better attuned to individual households. Additionally, the interactivity inherent in digitally delivered ads can allow advertisers to view, in real time, whether ads are being viewed, clicked and accessed, as well as allowing them to change ads depending on the success — or otherwise — of an ongoing campaign. In short, iTV can provide a better way to reach the right audience, and gives a whole new view of advertising performance. Addressable’s cousin, behavioral targeting, has been dominant in digital display for years, so while this may seem brand new, it actually isn’t.

A large insurance company recently launched its first national addressable ad campaign, targeting commercials for renter’s insurance to apartment dwellers and non-homeowners via both the Dish Network and DirecTV. In other words, if the subscriber was a homeowner, the commercial didn’t appear on the TV screen. The addressable ad campaign went live on two platforms at once, which is somewhat of a coup. The result: The company’s renters’ insurance experienced a 200 percent increase – and limited wasted marketing dollars.

Another example of how advertisers are starting to embrace the possibilities of iTV is an interactive digital campaign from McDonald’s Canada that was designed to answer consumer’s questions and dispel myths. The campaign, titled, “Our food, Your questions,” invited Canadian consumers via McDonald’s website, Twitter and Facebook FB +3.85% to ask questions about their food. To date, McDonald's MCD -0.28% has fielded more than 14,000 questions and responded with text and YouTube videos, which have earned millions of views. McDonald’s Canada has expanded the initiative with a mass media campaign including TV spots, digital takeover, and full-motion video projections in key markets around Canada.

So when will marketers finally realize that iTV has arrived? In 1993, the seven-year-old Fox network shocked the TV world when it won the rights to broadcast National Football League games, outbidding CBS. Just as that deal proved a Trojan Horse for getting Fox into the broadcast mainstream, so it will be with iTV. It’s only a matter of time until Google — or someone like Google — buys the rights to the Super Bowl and studs it with interactive commercials. But don’t wait until the first YouTube Super Bowl to recognize iTV’s emergence. By that point, no one will care what device we’re watching with.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2013/05/20/guess-what-marketers-interactive-tv-is-actually-here/