By George Anderson
Marketers, including Pepsi, McDonald's and AT&T, will begin showing commercials produced for television online through a new format from Unicast using Microsoft's Media technology.
Richard Hopple, chief executive officer, Unicast told Reuters, "This allows advertisers to take assets they already know are effective. There's no learning curve involved. They can run a commercial on (sports cable channel) ESPN ... and run the same commercial with interactivity on ESPN.com."
The commercials will launch as users move between Internet pages and will have a close button for those who prefer not to watch. Sites running the spots will also have control over the frequency in which they play.
ABCNews.com, ESPN.com and MSN.com will offer advertisers the option of running their TV spots online.
MSN's chief media revenue officer, Joanne Bradford, said, "We are going to test it later this month to figure out how this unit can impact brand awareness. The Internet experience is changing rapidly and I think ... marketers have to pay attention."
MSN plans to run the online commercials with entertainment, news and sports clips.
Moderator's Comment: What do you see as the positives/negatives associated with advertisers running television commercials online? Will consumers accept this form of interruption marketing?
We see some upsides to this approach.
The first being consumers interested in an advertised message will have the ability to act, making a direct purchase or by supplying personal information in exchange for receiving promotional offers, educational information, etc.
The second is advertisers may now be able to get a better handle on what spots best connect with targeted audiences by the number of times a spot is played online and the responses it generates. It could help provide insights on how many people actually stick around for the commercials on television instead of going to get a snack, bring us some laundry, take the dog for a walk, etc. - George Anderson - Moderator