National Cable Communications recently affiliated with Comcast Media Center’s Ad Distribution Network in an effort to more effectively distribute ad spots to local cable systems and the process has been a big success, according to NCC director of sales promotions and corporate communications Andie Kallinger.
The online network provides users with quick access to promotions, ad spots and customized branding content in multiple formats in both high- and low-resolution files.
By using ADN, NCC affiliates can view and download promotions and select political ad spots for local insertion. Local systems needn’t worry about receiving, editing and encoding Beta tapes.
The spots are broadcast-ready when the local system traffic manager downloads them, Kallinger said. At the same time, NCC avoids the costly and time-consuming process of dubbing and shipping tapes around the country.
“This is an eco-friendly and cost-effective way to deliver tapes to operators,” Kallinger said. “The biggest hurdle was the learning curve NCC and our operator affiliates had to overcome, and that only took a few weeks. This process eliminates the paper tracking, Beta tape creation and FedEx charges, and it means our advertisers can have their ads on the air in about 24 hours, not days.”
Of course, this isn’t NCC’s first foray into eBusiness. CableTrack Sysfile was created in 1991. The Sysfile provides agencies with access to all ad-insertable cable systems in the country, network availability, traffic requirements and payable information.
Agency.Spotcable.com provides a suite of electronic solutions from online planning to interactive avails/proposals to order and contract management to electronic invoice tracking and downloading. NCC’s new relationship with CMC will continue that trend in making it easier for ad agencies and cable operators to download and insert spots electronically.
“Our relationship with NCC will help to accelerate the advertising community’s interest in this fast and efficient method for delivering spot commercials to local markets,” said Leslie Russell, vice president of sales and marketing for the Comcast Media Center.
At this point, only promotional and political ads are available via ADN, Kallinger said. That will likely change over time but NCC wanted to start out slowly and allow operators to get a feel for how the system worked. So far, the response from operators has been positive, she said. Some smaller operators may still require Beta tape deliveries, but that number is small, Kallinger said.
“We’re certainly willing and able to deliver tapes in whatever format works best for each operator,” Kallinger said. “But people have really liked this electronic delivery method. It’s easy to use. It eliminates the time and energy of tracking down tapes that have been delivered. It also eliminates the process of encoding the tapes. And with the click of a mouse, operators can take a quick look at the spots in a low-res format.”
CMC’s ADN online network provides an accurate delivery of content from one centralized library, Russell said. Users can track content on a daily basis and make sure the most up-to-date content is available to meet the needs of the marketplace. And for those last-minute changes, ADN's flexibility allows for quick turnaround of content so users can get the new spots they need in hours, not days, Russell said.
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