Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Unfortunately this campaign ended before we knew about it, but since it stretched across the U.S. with interesting programming management, we thought it worth mentioning.
Fox Broadcasting Company chose Adspace Digital Mall Network, owner of what is believed to be the largest in-mall digital advertising network in the country, to creatively display and promote its midseason tune-in campaigns for nine series: Alcatraz, House, Glee, New Girl, Raising Hope, American Idol, Touch, The Finder and Napoleon Dynamite.
The effort consisted of more than 1,000 ad iterations with 18 DMA specific tags and up to seven date and time tune-ins per DMA, all handled seamlessly by Adspace Networks. At the digital media company, a database can be used to automatically populate commercials with key programming information. Small, but important changes, such as local air time information or schedule changes for a show can be stored in the databases which are maintained and monitored by Adspace.
“Normally a client would need to create video files for each version of advertisement. For example, if Glee is playing in Los Angeles and New York City, each DMA would require a video file for the specific date and run times,” says Bill Ketcham, Adspace executive vice-president and CMO. “However, our ‘dynamic template’ solution allows the client to design only one video file for each show, and the ad automatically populates the correct programming information when it runs. This reduces the creative workload of our television clients, and makes it easier to take advantage of our 32 million unique visitors each month.”
The Fox campaign ran on the Adspace Digital Mall Network from mid-December until the end of January.
February 14th, 2012 at 10:40 @486
I sometimes find it amazing how behind the times the ad industry is. We were doing templated content in the mid-late 90’s (Scala, Inspired, OneLAN et al) and the ad industry couldn’t see the point. They just wanted to deliver video clips.
I’d love to find out what’s changed – the cost of making video has plummeted so it’s probably not cost driven – maybe it’s budget driven? Have budgets fallen faster than costs? Is it just that the industry makes its money in different ways now and creative isn’t such a profit centre any more?