Tactics

An ambitious effort to take interactive television into American homes is expanding after a test of the system began at a single station last month.

In the latest in a string of acquisitions aimed at expanding its digital advertising services, Microsoft said that it was buying Navic Networks, a maker of television advertising technology.

eStara was awarded “Best Direct Response Campaign” at ad:tech’s recent award ceremony in San Francisco. The award focuses on innovative, interactive campaigns that yield a measurable response rate. eStara’s campaign resulted in 1,500 new memberships for a Portugal soccer club. The campaign combined online video, web interactivity, and click to call technology.

Shopping channel QVC has added online ratings and reviews from social commerce technology provider Bazaarvoice, and is planning to extend customer interaction across TV and mobile. Ultimately, QVC will integrate customers' ratings and reviews with the television broadcast as another tool to raise the level of customer interaction and feedback during the live show. For example, graphics for specific products shown on TV will include the average customer ratings that were originally posted on the web site.

Looking to move DRTV success onto the web? Target Marketing provides five useful tips -- with many spot-on comments from our own Tim Hawthorne.

HSN has been airing interactive advertising on the satellite TV services. The ads look like traditional 30-second commercials, but they're enhanced with an interactive button. Click the button with your remote, and voila, you're watching HSN. The Tampa Tribune points out that this sort of thing could come to annoy the networks on which you place ads, but how's this for 2.0 Marketing? Advertisers might actually be willing to pay more if networks lose enough viewers (to their interactive click-throughs, of course).

For DRTV product marketers, the allure of online video is irresistible. After all, the money has already been spent on production and media, so why not upload some of that video online in hopes of catching a few more customers in the net?

Take a step back and think about what it really takes to educate a consumer on the value of your product using long-form or short-form DRTV. Understand that while the longer format will afford you plenty of time to get your point across, the shorter 60- and 120-minute spots also serve as the perfect backdrop for an educational campaign.

With annual sales totaling more than $7 billion and an audience of more than 160 million households worldwide, QVC is not just the leader in home shopping networks, it's one of the world's largest retailers. And in becoming so, it has had an undeniable influence on the world of DRTV.