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TV Commercials Move Beyond the Box

Posted on: Friday, 22 September 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Frank Ahrens, Washington Post Staff Writer

When CBS television writers and producers sat down this spring to think about "Jericho," a new program for this fall, they crafted two story lines: one that would appear on television and one that would appear -- and fish for ad dollars -- only on the Internet.

CBS calls the second one the "D" story line, for digital. It will involve the characters and premise of the show but will consist of original content available only on the company's expanded Web site and on cellphones, where advertisers search for younger, harder-to-reach consumers.

For half a century, the 30-second commercial spot was the template for television advertising, a one-size-fits-all solution that networks offered everyone from soapmakers to car companies -- take it or leave it. They still pack a punch -- for launching blockbuster movies, for instance -- but now that networks face increasing competition for ad dollars from the Internet and the wandering attention of viewers, the 30-second spot is only one ingredient in a cocktail of options that networks are mixing for advertisers.

The new advertising choices also affect what viewers see on television and the Internet, as networks are creating extra programming tailored for advertisers. Fans of ABC's hit drama "Lost," for instance, are exploring additional original content that is nowhere to be seen on TV on the show's many Web sites.

Last week, as thousands of television network executives, media buyers, agents and advertisers gathered in New York for the annual "upfronts" -- when networks roll out their fall program lineups and try to sell the commercial spots contained therein -- digital buzzwords such as "extension,""engagement" and "Internet iterations" flew about.

"The Internet is everywhere this week," said Julie Henderson, senior vice president of corporate communications for Fox Interactive Media, the online arm of the Fox television network.

In many ways, the powerful networks are like a kid with a new train set, trying to figure out how to set it up and seeing if it will run. "It's a new world," said Jo Ann Ross, president of advertising sales at CBS. "There's a lot of experimenting." CBS is pitching its many digital platforms to advertisers, Ross said, as advertisers try to figure out which ones are best for them.

The networks are entering the online content and advertising space as never before now that 17 percent of all households -- and most workplaces -- are equipped with high-speed Internet access. The fast pipeline largely ends the frustration of trying to watch video online that plagued the Web's dial-up days and kept the networks out of the early Internet boom.

Combine a speedier Web with the rollout of numerous portable devices -- Apple's video iPod, Sony's PSP handheld video device -- and it's now possible and increasingly enjoyable to watch television shows on something other than TV.

That means a new frontier for advertisers -- car companies, beermakers, movie studios and so on -- and an ability for them to laser in on target audiences with "much more demographic distinction than television advertising" can, said ad buyer John Rash of Minneapolis's Campbell Mithun.

"The transcendent theme to this year's upfronts is content being put on multimedia platforms," Rash said.

For example, the hardest television viewers to reach are the 18- to 34-year-old, which is why shows that cater to them, such as Fox's "American Idol" and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," draw the highest ad rates, as much as $2 million per 30-second slot for the finales of some popular shows, such as "Friends."

Often, youthful viewers scorn television and other traditional advertising. Also, they are of a highly mobile, multitasking generation: How do you reach them with a television ad when they're not sitting at home watching TV? And, when they are, they may be fast-forwarding past the commercials with their TiVos.

But the 18- to 34-year-olds do have a high affinity for the Internet and mobile media devices such as iPods and cellphones, where traditional television advertisers are now looking.

"I think clients do want to experiment, and it makes sense to experiment in these new arenas," said Shari Ann Brill, vice president and director of programming for media-buying firm Carat USA.

Rupert Murdoch's Fox television network is launching a venture this fall called My Network. The shows -- such as English-language versions of , the staple of Spanish-language programming -- will be aimed at younger viewers.

Once the network begins broadcasting, fans will be able to go to an ad-supported Web site and listen to actors from the shows talk about their characters as though they are real. Networks will also have their characters write blogs, creating another opportunity for advertisers. Fans will be able to build their own social networking groups around their favorite shows, where they can gather and hash over the episodes. Which means advertisers will know exactly where to look to hit their target consumers. In a way, the online components of television shows work like bait.

Fox surged onto the Internet last year, when Murdoch bought the popular social networking Web site MySpace.com, gaining access to its 70 million users. Fox is now filling the site with its television content, such as episodes of the Fox drama "24," available for $1.99 downloads.

NBC's big announcement during the upfronts heralded Internet components to some of the network's programming, including a "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" game that will give players an online "briefing" on the clues for the case of that week's episode before it airs. Players will try to crack the case before the on-air detectives do.

"We all know the power of television to connect with viewers and have an impact like no other medium," Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal television group, said at the network's presentation. "Now, we're seeing the power of the Web to capture those viewers, extend the television experience and build communities and a level of engagement like nothing else out there."

CBS waded into the online ad-buy pool with Innertube, a Web site it launched earlier this month. The site includes extra content from CBS shows, such as "Survivor," bracketed by ads. For instance, a preview of the American Country Music Awards show, to be televised next week on CBS, begins and ends with 30-second Ford ads (that cannot be skipped). Such crossover strategy from television to the Web is at the heart of what is being called "extension," CBS's Ross said.

"If you're trying to sell a car, the car appears in a 30-second ad" on television, she explained. "Also, there's product placement in the program. Then, [advertisers] can go to CBS.com and then to Innertube and perhaps somewhere else. It gives advertisers more places to reach that customer," hitting all of the various "Internet iterations," including the Web, downloads, podcasts, mobile episodes and so forth.

As for "engagement," advertisers are starting to fear real repercussions from viewers who use digital video recorders, such as TiVo, to skip commercials, Ross said. So they have created a new way of measuring impact, "engagement," that networks must now worry about in addition to ratings. If networks can increase their reach from television onto the Internet, they hope to engage viewers where they live and work, and keep advertisers from taking their Internet ad dollars elsewhere.

Ad buyer Rash pointed out that the broadcast networks badmouthed cable networks when they launched more than two decades ago, saying they would not attract serious ad dollars. Now, every major network owns cable properties. The networks are not making the same mistake with the Internet and its many iterations.

"The networks have been quicker this time to realize they will eventually capitalize on the new dynamic," Rash said.

Reported By TechNews.com, http://www.TechNews.com

(20060520/WIRES /)

Source: Newsbytes

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