Revision3 Advertiser Integration - Part 1 of 2

UPDATE: Read part 2 of 2 here.

In this two-part post on advertiser integration as a solution to enhance brand experience without wasting eyeballs, I will discuss what advertiser integration is and then how Revision3 gets it brilliantly right.

Background of Television Advertising

It's been a long road. We've gone from advertising being generally accepted as part of programming to advertising being annoying and then to advertising adding value to programming.

While my parents watched variety and game shows in their day, the producers would pause programming to remind us who made the show possible. Usually, one of the female assistants would hold up a product, like a brand of coffee or laundry detergent, to the camera while an announcer delivers an advertising message.

Truman's wife did something like this in the movie The Truman Show. Also in that era, The Flintstones would cut to a spot for Winston cigarettes, with Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone delivering the ad.

These are examples of including a commercial message within programming, instead of during a break.

When commercial breaks were introduced, advertisers chose programs they figured their target market would tune into. And it works for mass advertising, but there is a lot of "wasted eyeballs," for lack of a better term. So, the need for more targeted media planning arose...just in time for the rise of cable and targeted programming. Beer and power tool ads would run on channels with male-oriented programming, and so on.

Then, as a result of DVRs, advertisers thought of new ways to incorporate commercial messages into programming to avoid wasted eyeballs. The upside was the discovery of more effective ways to connect a brand message with its intended audience. There are a lot of great solutions born from the modern intersection of advertising and entertainment. For example:

• Product placement
• Sponsorship
• Branded entertainment
• Celebrity endorsements
• Viral entertainment
• Content deals
• Consumer-generated media and user-generated content
  
• Etc.
  

I often think about which marketing strategies work and which are most entertaining when I see them in action:

• Joey on Friends drinking a Red Bull in order to stay up late enough to rehearse for an audition delivers the "Red Bull gives you wings" message in a creative way
  
• Mountain Dew sponsoring extreme sports events like the Dew Action Sports Tour
  
• Creating a web adventure like the producers of Lost did to garner loyalty among devoted fans

Advertisers have fewer wasted eyeballs and timely, informative and relevant messages. They are connecting consumers not just to a mass commercial message, but to a brand experience.

"Brand Experience Placement"

If I was a fan of The Tyra Banks Show, and I skipped all the commercials, Warner Bros. Entertainment would not value me highly, since the company wouldn't earn money by selling my eyeballs to their advertisers.

But let's say Tyra had an episode about Internet dating and the producers integrated an advertiser, like match.com into the show. Tyra mentioned success stories. The "guests" shared their experiences. And maybe they even had their "Chief Matchmaking Officer," or whatever, on the show.

Warner Bros.' advertisers are paying for the viewers and rating, so they're happy; Tyra's producers are happy; and if I'm part of the demographic that values seeing how match.com works, then I'm happy, too! It's the convergence of entertainment and marketing in an entertaining way. That's what I call "brand experience placement."

Advertiser Integration

How could the partnership between The Tyra Banks Show and match.com get any better?

• What if everyone who watched Tyra was single and lonely?
• What if Tyra was single and lonely, uses match.com herself, and highly recommends it?
• What if Tyra's viewers could instantly browse to match.com from their television?
• What if Warner Bros. could measure the viewers who subsequently went to match.com?

WELL, THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!

It would be a solid marriage of advertiser, programming, product and viewer. And that's the position Internet television network Revision3 is in...because they are uniquely positioned to make it happen.

Next in this two-part blog post I'll explain what Revision3 is, discuss how Revision3 uses Advertiser Integration and why I think it's such an effective tool to enhance brand experience.

UPDATE: Read part 2 of 2 here.