The Best Advertising Idea in History?
Posted May 21, 2008 at 4:54 pm by Mark Fefer
The digital world has brought us many benefits, and none more valuable than "keyword advertising," which (in theory at least) delivers ads that are targeted to exactly what you're searching for online. (Or in the case of gmail, more or less targeted to what you're talking about in your email messages.)
Not to be outdone by the New Media upstarts, however, the Turner Entertainment Network has introduced its groundbreaking TVinContext system, which involves cataloging scenes from Turner Entertainment's vast library of programs, and then selling advertising "related" to the content. As Turner executive Linda Yaccarino explained in a recent presentation, described in the New York Times:
After the conclusion of a scene from the movie Anchorman in which Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell discuss love, the first spot in the next commercial break could be for the eHarmony.com online dating service.
She also described an example of a scene from the movie Hitch in which Will Smith suffers an allergic reaction to his food. That could be followed, Ms. Yaccarino said, by a commercial for the Walgreen drugstore chain for the allergy medicine Zyrtec.
Turner's so right. The possibilities are endless: After a scene in which Jason (Halloween) cuts the head off a terrified babysitter with a chainsaw, the first spot in the next commercial break could be for Stihl. After the shower in Psycho, an ad for Olay Body Wash with Radiance Ribbons. And so on. There's life in the Old Media yet!
Topics: Culture
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