Interactive TV: Harness this Ever Changing Platform to Boost Engagement and Revenue
What: A one-hour Webinar with a dynamic panel of experts that will show you how you can leverage the power of Interactive TV (ITV) to build consumer viewership and engagement and unprecedented advertiser effectiveness. The Webinar will include the latest research on deployment and adoption of ITV, which demographic segments are embracing ITV and which new platforms, devices and interfaces will become part of everyday life. This Webinar will help you prioritize your ITV strategy and position yourself and your brand for success. More Information.
When: Thursday, November 29, 2012, 1:30 - 2:30pm ET
Who: The expert panelists, including Pat McDonough (Nielsen), Brian McClary (Ford Motor Company) and Jeff Siegel (ROVI) will help make sense of the pressing technological and marketing challenges facing MSOs, networks, agencies and brands. The Webinar will share best practices and proven tactics to help you build the right ITV business models to maximize consumer awareness and engagement, brand participation and revenue growth. You will also hear how advertisers can benefit from ITV to increase campaign effectiveness and overall ROI.
How: Register Now. Cost $295 per site.
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.
Register now - price increases $200.00 on January 2, 2013. Mark your calendar and make plans to attend the world's largest innovation event.
2013 International CES to Feature Major Consumer Technology Trends and Inspiring Innovations
London, – 11/15/2012 – From wireless wallets to cloud-based services, app integration, digital health and fitness devices and beyond, the 2013 International CES® will feature an array of top consumer technology products and trends, including inspiring innovations across a range of hot products and categories. Owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®, the 2013 CES, the world’s largest innovation event, will take place January 8-11, 2013, in Las Vegas.
“The 2013 International CES will showcase the latest innovations and trends that will capture the hearts and minds of consumers over the coming months and years,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences, CEA. “More, our conference sessions cover the most important issues and trends across our industry, further cementing CES’ position as a can’t-miss event for industry professionals.”
"The 2013 CES will draw 150,000 industry professionals to witness the next generation of consumer technology. More than 3,000 exhibitors will debut 20,000 new products across 1.8 million net square feet of exhibit space. In addition to hundreds of conference sessions covering top issues and trends crossing the full spectrum of the consumer technology and related industries, the 2013 CES experience will feature the following representative sampling of exhibitors, keynotes and TechZones: Wireless Wallets, Gesture Recognition/HMI, Cloud-Based Services,App Integration, Digital Health and Fitness, Wireless Home Automation/Home Energy Management, Connected Consumers: On Demand Services, 3D Printing, and Safe Driver/Connected Cars."
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.
TVOT NYC Intensive 2012 is a one-day, must attend show. It is the east coast version of the highly successful west coast TV of Tomorrow Show (spring 2013, San Francisco). TVOT events focus exclusively on the delivery and user experience of interactive TV across multiple platforms.
WHAT: East Coast "TV of Tomorrow Show" Event Will Feature Three Tracks, over 100 Expert Speakers and Panelists, Hands-On Workshops, and the Return of [itvt]'s popular Holiday Party.
-
The Today Track will focus on the hard data that can be gleaned--and the lessons that can be learned--from the many deployments of interactive, social and advanced TV that are already in the field today.
-
The Tomorrow Track will provide attendees with the opportunity to explore how the various platforms, technologies, screens, standards, content genres and business models that make up today's interactive/social/advanced TV space are likely to evolve over the coming months and years, and to identify new technologies, new forms of programming, new monetization strategies, and other developments that are likely to impact the space in the future.
-
The Workshop/Master Class Track will provide smaller groups of attendees with a more intimate and hands-on environment in which to: 1) see and learn about promising new interactive, social and advanced TV technologies and business strategies; 2) get their questions and concerns answered by subject matter experts; and 3) gain practical skills for implementing interactive, social and advanced TV experiences.
WHEN: Monday, December 10th, Registration Check-in: 7:30AM
WHO: Speakers are selected for their expertise alone. The panel sessions are structured, educational, rigorous and highly focused, and even include moderated (and sometimes heated) debates on hot-button issues.
WHERE: 730 Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan
WHY: The event will enable the pay-TV operators, consumer electronics manufacturers and technologists who are building the TV platforms of tomorrow to engage in an interactive and productive exchange of ideas with the brands, broadcasters, networks, agencies, entrepreneurs, investors, producers, developers, designers, storytellers, social media companies and other stakeholders upon whom the success of those platforms depends. To find more information, click here: http://www.thetvoftomorrowshow.com
HOW: Register for the Show
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.
As NBC's ratings attest, the network is bringing home the gold in terms of total viewership. So with all those eyeballs, how are first and second screen companion apps doing in terms of monetizing t-commerce? Well some never even entered the competition, others are in training and a select few are bringing home the medals.
Here's how I score the field.
Watch with eBay Wins Bronze
I'll say from the start that your judge is not a big eBay shopper so I was overwhelmed with the eclectic (that's being kind) mix of 10,736 items offered once I went shopping. To eBay's credit, Shop the Games was prominently featured. But even after working to refine the assortment, I still faced 1,466 Men's Clothing choices. Let's call in a Nordstrom coach as their site allows shoppers to sort based on a multitude of item attributes. eBay has upped the penetration of Buy it Now items so at least they leverage the impulsive nature of sports shopping. It's Bronze by default.
IntoNow from Yahoo! Wins Silver
After easily syncing to the Olympics, I had to do a bit of hunting to find the t-commerce opportunity but there it was on the first page, albeit below the fold (at least on my iPad). Labeled "Shop" with a price tag graphic, one click brings viewers to Team USA's Olympic online shop where you can peruse a raft of items. The site is OK but not great in terms of organization. But to get people there in the first place, you need a solid call to action and that's where IntoNow loses valuable points.
You can also head to iTunes via IntoNow's music sync but it was difficult to return. One last side note, IntoNow and other apps suffered from NBC's tape delay as I frequently saw news feed final results of events I hadn't yet finished watching.
ConnecTV Wins Gold
After selecting Olympics as my show, I saw gold in the relatively prominent, lower-left box 90% dedicated to t-commerce. Michael Phelps headphones! 2012 Olympic Game Highlights (pre-order)! London Baseball Caps! The featured product rotated as did some great calls to action: "Gear Up!" "Want More?" All links sent you to Amazon - the trusted commerce site with a huge customer base (no worries about setting up a new payment form here).
ConnecTV and/or Amazon had clearly done some thinking about which items to feature. That's important given the impulsive nature of sports fan gear shopping. I want that athlete's shirt right after she wins the gold. Once done shopping, I found it easy to get back to ConnecTV. Still, there is room for improvement. I'd like to see more items rotated and quick links to the wider Amazon assortment of Olympic product. But add up the points and ConnecTV clearly clinches the gold!
Not Competing
I couldn't locate t-commerce opportunities on either of NBC's apps: NBC Olympics and Live Extra. Nor could I identify shopping possibilities via Shazam, which was surprising given their t-commerce links during the Super Bowl. Verizon FIOS's Olympics widget was also not a contender.
Have you done any Olympic t-commerce shopping? I hear you run faster in an authentic Olympic tee!
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.
Reach. Engage. Measure. Monetize.
WHY: Well, the tag line sums this up best: "If the port of entry into the digital world lives in the palm of one’s hand—does that make mobile the new 1st screen?" Particularly when you consider that mobile is driving nearly 10% of all internet traffic globally. For those of us focused on t-commerce, mobile commerce or m-commerce often has much to teach us about easy, simple ways to serve up and close transactions.
WHAT: The 2012 IAB Mobile Marketplace "offers a day of discussion, debate, and actionable insights about how to unlock the vast opportunities inherent to mobile by effectively engaging consumers, measuring mobile marketing efforts, and efficiently monetizing the new first screen." Check out the agenda.
2012 topics include:
-
The Agency View: What I Buy, Why and How
-
M-commerce: Beyond Clicks to Bricks
-
Size Matters: Mobile and the Creative Canvas
-
Mobile & RTB
-
Marketplace Conversations: interactive, small-group discussion sessions
WHEN: July 16, 2012
WHERE: Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1605 Broadway, New York, NY
HOW: Register now.
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.
WHAT: Nielsen webinar, "Courting Today's Mobile Consumers". Join this free, hour long webinar "to learn about trends in consumer mobile usage and how savvy marketers, publishers and developers are reaching today's mobile consumers."
WHEN: July 18, 2012, 2 p.m. EDT
WHY: For those of us focused on t-commerce, mobile is a key part of the transaction solution given the propensity of TV viewers to have their mobile handy while watching television. And now that more than half of US mobile consumers have smartphones, these devices will play an increasingly important role in second screen t-commerce.
WHO: Nielsen has been metering consumer smartphone usage on both the Android and iOS platforms since January 2011.
HOW: Join the free July 18th webinar. Click here to register.
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.
If you weren't able to attend TVOT 2012 in San Francisco or attended but didn't have time to check out all the vendor demos, no worries. I made the rounds for you asking the simple question: "Show me the latest."
From interactive advertising to ACR technology to cutting-edge hybrid strategies, here's a second set of iTV video demos. I've kept each to 1 - 2 minutes so you can move through them quickly.
Demos & Details
1. YuMe shows how advertisers can benefit from making a one-to-one connection with consumers via its platform.
2. ACR platform Zeitera showcases both interactive programming and interactive advertising capabilities.
3. Here's a quick demo by Blendagram, a company that can insert logos into existing video.
4. Softel's CTO walks us through their new hybrid interactive platform MediaSphere.
For more iTV videos and t-commerce insights check out:
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.
I was fortunate to moderate an entertaining and informative debate on competing interactive TV strategies at The TV of Tomorrow Show 2012 in San Francisco. Tracy Swedlow, the driving force behind the must attend conference, praised the debate as "one of the highlights of the show."
The six debaters paired up into three teams to bring their points-of-view on the current and future state interactivity via single-screen, second-screen or hybrid applications. Of course, these industry leaders have all tackled multiple iTV strategies but were good sports to champion a specific strategy for purposes of the debate.
At just over 40 minutes, you'll need to set aside some time to watch the debate but I promise that if you do, you'll be rewarded with an excellent set of strategic arguments both pro and con for each of these approaches. From t-commerce to audience engagement to interactive advertising the debate covers it all in an entertaining fashion!
Watch the video courtesy of [itvt]: The Great Debate: Single-Screen, Second-Screen or Both?
Will Keller Moderating The Great Debate Photo courtesy of [itvt]
The Debaters
- Channing Dawson, Senior Advisor, Scripps Networks (The Single-Screen Party)
- Lisa Farris, CEO, Get This (The Second-Screen Party)
- Debbie Fitzgerald, Principal Architect, CableLabs (The Single-Screen Party)
- Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce (Moderator)
- Sam Pemberton, CEO, Softel (The Hybrid Party)
- Anne-Marie Roussel, Head of Strategic Investments and Partnerships, Social Media, Sharp Labs (The Hybrid Party)
- Pete Scott, VP of Emerging Media, Turner Sports (The Second-Screen Party)
We were also fortunate to have some opinion-makers (or as Tracy Swedlow named them "Agents Provacateurs") in the audience ready to interject their questions and points of view into the debate: Zane Vella, CEO, Watchwith and Mike Kelley, SVP of Business Development, Programming and Advertising, Ensequence.
The Great Debate Presentation
To read the debate questions and four audience polls as well as see the iTV app examples each team used to buttress their cases, click on this title slide of the accompanying presentation.
Debate Description from TVOT Brochure
"In this year of non-stop political discourse, TVOT sets the stage for a friendly debate between two parties not often covered by the major news networks: champions for single-screen in-program and in-ad interactivity (EBIF and smart TV) and champions for second-screen interactivity (tablets, mobiles and laptops). The debate will also include the views of an emergent third party--the Hybrid Party--which believes that the TV of Tomorrow will be driven by both single- and second-screen interaction.
The debate will be divided into four hot topics. For each, our panelists will put forward their strongest arguments--illustrated by ITV campaign examples and statistics--respond to opposition points, and address questions posed by the moderator and audience.
- Swing Viewers: Viewers vote every time they tune in, change the channel or pick up a second-screen device. What winning strategies garner the most viewer votes and why?
- Technological Edge: In the short term, second screens have the momentum, given lower costs and speed-to-market. What do single-screen advocates have to say about that and their own potential shift to template strategies?
- A Strong Economy: To paraphrase a former president, 'It's the business plan, stupid.' The parties will argue the cost/benefit merits of their interactive strategies for both programmers and advertisers and why their approach is best for the overall ITV economy.
- Future Vision: What are the parties' visions for the future? Come the next election cycle, what will the ITV landscape look like? What new strengths will the parties incorporate into their platforms?
Who Won? Audience Poll Results
We polled the audience four times during the debate courtesy of TVplus interactive app. The second screen team won the overall debate but note the close results for question one on which party (strategy) garners the most eyeballs.
Question #1: Which Party wins over the most TV viewers?
- Second Screen: 39%
- Hybrid: 34%
- Single Screen: 27%
Question #2: Which Party has the technological edge?
- Second Screen: 70%
- Hybrid: 20%
- Single Screen: 10%
Question #3: Which Party builds the strongest economy?
- Second Screen: 47%
- Hybrid: 29%
- Single Screen: 24%
Question #4: Which Party Will be the most dominant in the next couple of years?
- Second Screen: 67%
- Hybrid: 23%
- Single Screen: 10%
Join the debate by leaving a comment on how you would vote!
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.
Here's your inside track to all the happenings at the
TV of Tomorrow Show 2012 in San Francisco. From video demos to blogs on iTV and t-commerce learnings to relevant news coverage,
Inside the Screen fills you in on the jammed-pack show.
As a consultant who grows clients'
t-commerce sales, I was excited by the show buzz surrounding t-commerce. Certainly, PayPal's sponsoring role helped but so does the our industry's growing recognition that we've got to generate revenue. T-commerce anyone?
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.
If you weren't able to attend TVOT 2012 in San Francisco or attended but didn't have time to check out all the vendor demos, no worries. I made the rounds for you asking the simple question: "Show me the latest."
From single screen content discovery to second screen apps to gamification, here's the first set of iTV video demos. I've kept each to 1 - 2 minutes so you can move through them quickly.
Demos & Details
1. ActiveVideo has taken it's content discovery and social TV capabilities - two major themes at TVOT - to the cloud.
2. Start-up Tomorrowish accurately describes itself as as a social media DVR which syncs tweets and posts with programming regardless of when the viewer watches. No spoilers here!
3. X2TV was one of several vendors demonstrating second screen solutions; in their case, they underscored simple, low cost campaign creation.
4. Visiware demoed its PlayAlong app which, in this example, was running live with the Spanish version of Money Drop.
I'll blog on another four next week. For interactive television video demos from The Cable Show in Boston and CES in Las Vegas check out my YouTube Channel iTVCommerce.
For my summary highlights of the show, please read: 7 iTV & T-Commerce Highlights from TVOT Day One and 5 iTV & T-Commerce Highlights from TVOT Day Two.
Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to expert for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.