With potentially half a billion dollars at stake, networks and web destinations are hard-selling advertisers on their digital campaigns.
Product Placement Surge: How do you earn advertising dollars in a world where consumers are skipping the ads, downloading shows, and otherwise avoiding 30-second spots? Product placement such as this plug for PS3 game Heavenly Sword in an episode of NBC’s Heroes. “There is going to be a tremendous focus on not just branded integration but interactive extensions during this year’s upfront,” NextMedia’s Hamet Watt tells Paul La Monica in CNN Money’s preview of the upfronts. [CNN Money]
Spending Shift Leaders: What segments are leading in the spending shift from broadcast to digital? Travel, recreation and cars, according to Dave Evans of Clickz. “It’s not coincidental that the leaders in the TV-to-digital spend shift are the categories most associated with the combination of consumer-driven research and word of mouth.” As a recent research study from Fox Interactive suggests, digital campaigns are all about the conversation. [Clickz]
Agencies Working Online: Between the content distributors and the companies with products to advertise, stand the advertising agencies that produce the campaigns. “The advent of video has certainly put people in the position to start thinking about the online space,” Media Contacts’ Ed Montes tells Tobi Elkin of MediaPost. But that doesn’t mean that there will be a big change in how advertisers approach the upfronts, he suggested. Old media and new media will be meeting tomorrow at MediaPost’s “Outfront 2007” in New York to discuss the shifting landscape. [MediaPost]
Network Digital Strategies: NBC, which is third place in the ratings for the season to date but is leading online, spends a lot of energy pushing digital last year, but along with other networks, didn’t necessarily get the returns on digital initiatives they were looking for, according to MediaWeek. This year, the networks should be more comfortable providing details and organized in their approach, but advertisers may wait to spend until distribution networks like NewCo go live. [MediaWeek]
AOL Jumps the Gun: With their dial-up subscriber business evaporating faster than a puddle in the Sahara, AOL hosted a star-studded launch party for their new interactive programming in an effort to capture advertisers attention well before the networks announce their fall lineups. Initiatives include online game tie-ins to Mark Burnett’s Gold Rush, Shrek the Third, and Million Dollar Bill. Yahoo declined to offer details of the results to reporter Anick Jesdanun from a similar showcase event in February. [AP]
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