Ensequence said it has landed its first set of partners for AdConneqt+, the interactive advertising platform that Ensequence is grooming for nationwide deployment.
Joining the cause early on are AMC Networks, independent programmer ReelzChannel, and consumer electronics giant Samsung. While AMC and ReelzChannel offer a content play for AdConneqt+, all Samsung connected TVs outfitted with automatic content recognition will be capable of participating in interactive advertising campaigns. WEtv is the first network from the AMC stable to use AdConneqt+.
“One of our goals early on is to demonstrate the value AdConneqt+ adds to independent as well as corporately owned networks," Ensequence COO David Kline said, in a statement.
Ensequence launched AdConneqt+ in September, billing it as a distributor-agnostic interactive advertising system that will seek a national reach, capable of supporting various cable, satellite and telco TV platforms, as well as smart TVs.
Interactive elements, such as request for more information requests about an advertised product, will be embedded inside 30-second spots. Early on, Ensequence will equip AdConnqt+ to provide RFI (featuring SMS text fulfillment) ads and, for cable networks, interactive remind/record capabilities.
Ensequence’s new platform is partly born out of the EBIF-based request-for-information system that was originally developed for the MSO-backed Canoe advanced advertising venture. In addition to supporting the EBIF-based realm cable boxes, AdConneqt+ is also being made to work with other proprietary platforms as well as systems that use ACR, a technology popular in the IP world that detects the ads automatically and stitches in the interactive component.
Ensequence, which is targeting a go live timeframe of the first quarter of 2014, anticipates AdConneqt+ will reach 15 million to 20 million TV homes out of the chute, and grow to 30 million to 40 million homes by the end of 2014. Ensequence said AdConneqt+ has a potential reach of more than 75 million homes.
Other Ensequence customers include NBCUniversal, Viacom Media Networks, Turner Broadcasting, HBO, QVC, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Dish Network and Verizon Communications, among others.
