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A Next Big Thing

Advertising is the backbone of publishing and broadcasting - both the old fashioned print, radio and TV type media and the newer online versions.

Although there are a number of strictly subscription-based publications and broadcasts that contain no advertising, most of the content we access carries at least a minimal level of solicitations from advertisers.

Online advertising has often been seen as the poor cousin of that delivered by way of print and broadcast -- however that may be about to change.

With the proliferation of smart TVs and video on demand (VOD), a fantastic new opportunity for advertisers is appearing.

US streaming video company Hulu is about to start trialling the ultimate in effective advertising -- an ad for Pizza Hut that will allow viewers to order their own tasty treat by simply clicking on the ad.

How many times have you been watching a TV program, seen an advertisement for a snack or food product and thought "hmmm... I'm hungry, I wouldn't mind one of those right now" -- but done nothing about it because you just can't be bothered getting out of your chair?

Well imagine the effectiveness of an advertising system that allows you to sate your desire for such impulse purchases with little more than a button press.

If it can be implemented as planned, I suspect this form of advertising and direct sales will become a very big, possible "the next big" thing.

Although we're used to being able to click on a banner ad and purchase a product from a vendor's website, being able to integrate this level of functionality into a TV broadcast is quite revolutionary and stands to change the whole ball-game when it comes to establishing a value for advertising.

Interactivity is what the Net is all about so it makes perfect sense that services that stream video on demand start employing advertising mechanisms that allow for these highly interactive impulse-purchases. If it works as well as one might think, we could see an increase in the number of purely ad-funded VOD content, effectively placing broadcast TV at an even greater disadvantage and reversing the situation where broadcast ads are perceived to be worth more than streamed ones.

The situation for broadcast TV has already been made worse by the proliferation of PVRs with the ability to skip through advertising far more effectively than our old VCRs ever could.

How long, I wonder, before streamed VOD becomes the preferred choice for viewers and advertisers alike?

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