TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Zapping to commercials,
on purposeIt had to happen. It isn't called The Advertising Channel but that is its purpose.
Broadband iTV, founded by Honolulu businessmen Clifton Kagawa and Richard Tillotson, will soon launch what they call the nation's first interactive channel featuring on-demand advertising.
All commercials all the time, or more accurately, anytime.
"We talk about it as being product information on demand," Tillotson said.
The duo believes the medium is precedent-setting. "So far as we're aware, this is a unique service that hasn't really been tried anywhere else," he said.
BBiTV is to debut next month as part of the digital cable service offered by Oceanic Time-Warner Cable of Hawaii, but Tillotson would not reveal the channel assignment or launch date.
Oceanic's on-demand services, including video movies, HBO, news and sports as well as an interactive pizza ordering channel, receive 14,000 views per week, the company says.
BBiTV will offer a menu of commercial videos in the travel, automotive and real estate categories. The categories were chosen because of the big-ticket items they include, the complexity of the products or services and because consumers shopping for such things tend to need a large amount of information before deciding what to buy, Tillotson said.
"One other important characteristic, for these kinds of purchases," he said, "is that they tend to be a group or family decision ... it's a lot easier to flip on the TV set than get everybody to read the same brochures or gather around the laptop."
As of yesterday the iTV Auto Show clients included Nissan, BMW and Harley-Davidson; iTV Travel Mall clients included Aloha Airlines and Hyatt Hotels and several real estate agents had signed up for the iTV Open House category, Tillotson said.
He did not reveal rates, but said BBiTV offers a three-tiered pricing structure; one rate for up to 5 minutes, another for up to 15 minutes and a third for up to 30 minutes. Each tier has a flat fee and offers an unlimited number of plays.
There are some annual contracts in place, he said, but most clients are scheduled to run for one month, on a renewable basis.
"Television is usually considered to be a reach and frequency medium," Tillotson said. "In other words, how often do you get (audience members). This is really different. It's a targeting impact kind of medium more comparable to direct response marketing."
BBiTV's four-person sales force has been pitching its wares via presentations and a dedicated test-channel on Oceanic, but without the benefit of broadcast ratings measurements.
Jim Loomis, executive vice president of advertising agency Loomis Inc., called BBiTV "a very interesting concept and I think there's a place for it in the advertising mix.
"The whole trend in the advertising business over the last couple of years is to find ways to reach a very specific audience with very specific messages. This certainly would be a way of doing that," he said.
The new offering is not likely to compel companies to spend more money on advertising but may further fragment the way ad dollars are spread around the market, Loomis said. "There's just so many dollars in the media pot and in many cases it will be a reallocation."
Tillotson and Kagawa see opportunities for expansion well beyond Hawaii's shores.
"We own the technology that you'll be seeing on the screen and there are certainly other markets we can take it to," Tillotson said.
"But our first order of business is to make it work here in the islands."
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com