Here, we look at how a range of exciting new spot advertising formats are engaging viewers and creating cut-through for brands.

ADVERTAINMENT

Consumers are engaging with TV in new ways: they’re interacting more and more with TV content, and they’re also prepared to do so with the right advertising.

Advertainments plug into this idea. The essence of Advertainment is the last minute addition of information to a television ad in order to increase the topicality of the ad and to create an “as live” feel to their communications. A major benefit is that it creates additional reward for the viewer, which can be either information-led or prize-led.

Advertainment also allows an interaction with customers by using technology that updates the message on the ad throughout a programme. Alternatively, advertisers can run a series of live interactive promotions during the ad breaks where viewers can vote via TXT, SMS, online or telephone.

Here are a few examples:

A media first, Ford ran an advertainment competition on ITV1 last Easter, where viewers could win a new Ford Focus. For four nights they broadcast a brand commercial and a competition commercial. The night’s lucky winner was announced using ‘as live’ advertising on the same evening. Viewers could enter the prize draw by phoning, texting or pressing the red button. There were 50,000 responses.

Fuller’s London Pride also used advertainment to create extra cut through for their communications during the Rugby World Cup. The advertainment technology allowed Fuller’s to incorporate the latest match scores within their ads during half-time and full-time - giving viewers communication with real currency. By the end of the campaign the brand had achieved its highest sales and brand share.

Action-Man needed to update his image and get kids to care enough to keep him on top of the Christmas chart.

The campaign took the interactive lessons of Big Brother and The Big Read and translated it into the kids’ environment.

A TV advert showing him battling arch enemy Dr X, stopped on a cliff-hanger with Dr X poised over a death ray and Action Man deciding whether or not to save him. Viewers would have to vote one way or the other. 100,000 wrote in or responded online. The activity helped reconnect Action Man with key trade outlets and regain the number one sales spot from his rivals.

This kind of advertising also has the potential to add value to an existing communications strategy and make the television experience, and the brand, more exciting and surprising for the viewer. It offers good brand standout versus a traditional spot advert, “talkability” amongst viewers and opportunities for PR.

ASSOCIATIVE ADVERTAINMENT

The thirty second spot is evolving.  Innovation can arise from the fusion of a fresh creative treatment and media placement, what you might call “associative advertainment.” For example:

Chanel No 5 took the whole first break during Channel 4’s screening of the film Moulin Rouge and played an ad that was more like a mini-movie. Both ad and film starred Nicole Kidman and were directed by Baz Luhrmann.

The transition between film and ad was almost seamless and the broadcast was perfectly timed for Christmas. Most importantly, the audience were entertained in a brand environment.

John West Salmon created a spoof documentary spot that was placed top and tail around a Survival programme about Russian bears. Seamless - you can barely tell the end of the ad break and the return to the programme.

ADVERTORIALS

The lines between advertising and entertainment are blurring. Smart advertisers and agencies are looking for creative ways to attract the attention of the viewer and engage them in a rewarding dialogue.

DR Pepper wanted to reach 13-19 year olds efficiently, and compliment their “what’s the worse that can happen” strap-line.

To do this, they deployed advertorials, where the advertiser pays for creative that resembles channel content and this is transmitted within advertising time.

They sponsored MTVs Punk’d (a “stitch up” show) and ran a competition around the programme in the ad space (and online) providing consumers the chance to get the Punking of their friends on the box.

The brand communication was tightly targeted and delivered in the context of a destination show.

REALITY TV ADS

Advertisers and agencies seeking inspiration, could do a lot worse than look to documentary and reality TV techniques for innovative ways to emotionally engage consumers.

For smokers trying to quit, a major comfort factor and motivator is knowing that others are having similar experiences.

Nicquitin found a real-life quitter and aired her video diary in real time on TV, from her decision to quit onwards. These reality TV ads were broadcast in spots where the message would be most pertinent. People were engaged by the woman’s journey, the brand achieved cut through in a cluttered market. 173 thousand people pressed red to find out more, sales increase by 40% and tracking showed that the ad succeeded in maintaining peak season awareness levels out of season.

BLIPVERTS

There are now more opportunities than ever to innovate on TV, but not all ad format innovations are about entertainment or dialogue. Brands can become front of mind by adhering to the idea that less is more - as long as less is more often.”

For example Sony ran a one-second ‘blipvert’ last summer, featuring a small plastic doll wearing a Sony Walkman and the strapline ‘go create’. Frequency keeps the brand front of mind, and for viewers, it can be fun to try to spot the message across a number of breaks. O2 also used Blipverts as part of their brilliantly successful rebranding campaign.

Of course, there are cost benefits, as blipverts can be low on both media and production costs.

Experience in the USA shows that blipverts can be successful advertising tools and can really work. Masterlock, a US padlock company, saw sales rise 40% when it launched a one-second advertising campaign.

SUMMARY

TV advertising formats are changing all the time - the challenge is for commercial TV companies to work with clients and agencies to exploit these innovations and for all of us to seek new ways of engaging with viewers.