Although Canoe Ventures exited the interactive TV advertising game last month, the platform is alive and well at Cablevision Systems Corp., which says its has thus far delivered nearly 4 billion impressions in the nation's largest DMA.
The New York metro area's predominant distributor has conducted over 900 ITV ad campaigns for 600 clients, including national advertisers Mattel, Ford, Disney, Unilever and the U.S. Navy, as well local and regional sponsors, including marketers in the health care producer and educational institutions categories, according to Cablevision executives.
Cablevision maintains that as advertisers continue to seek more accountability, the MSO's suite of highly differentiated advanced advertising products deliver enhanced relevance, consumer engagement and rich campaign metrics.
"Even with Canoe's shift in direction, advertisers should know that the cable providers, like Cablevision, continue to offer and enhance their advanced advertising products," said David Kline, president and COO of Cablevision Media Sales, in a statement. "Interactive television advertising has changed the way advertisers engage with consumers and Cablevision delivers a robust set of advanced capabilities to local and national advertisers. The participation and response from advertisers has been tremendous. We have helped to generate nearly four billion impressions to date and in the last year alone, conducted more than 900 campaigns from more than 600 advertisers in the nation's largest market."
The ITV advertising update by Cablevision echoes remarks made by Comcast Cable senior vice president, general manager of video services Marcien Jenckes. Speaking at the Advanced Advertising event, "Setting the 2012 Agenda," sponsored by B&C and Multichannel News in New York last week, Jenckes said the cable industry, in general, and the nation's largest distributor, in particular, remain committed to ITV advertising. Jenckes, who gave a shout out to Cablevision for its "good work" with the platform, pointed out that Comcast Spotlight, the MSO's ad sales arm, has engaged in upward of 1,700 ITV campaigns that have delivered 4.5 billion impressions to date.
Cablevision Media Sales offers a full suite of highly differentiated products that deliver enhanced relevance, consumer engagement and rich campaign metrics, analytics and insight. Cablevision was first to offer dedicated branded channels and other advanced products including, the first and largest deployment of addressable advertising to date, and the introduction of Optimum Select RFI that empowers digital cable customers to immediately respond to commercials through their TV remote control and engage directly with the advertiser.
Cablevision, Comcast and other distributors' initiatives in the field drew the praise of top executives in the media buying community.
"There is continuing pressure from the industry for advanced advertising. The need for household addressable advertising plus interactive services and metrics on TV will only continue to rise," said Irwin Gotlieb, chairman of GroupM. "The efforts to date, by Cablevision and other television distributors, to develop and prove these capabilities is vital and laudable and will positively impact the underlying economics of television."
Noted Craig Woerz, managing partner of Media Storum: "Interactive television is very much alive and the momentum only continues to increase. We have significant experience with advanced TV ad platforms for a wide range of clients nationwide, providing critical insight and consumer engagement. Cablevision has allowed us to paddle into areas
that our clients have seen direct benefit from in return on investment."
