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Infomercials on digital out-of-home

RVue announces deal with an infomercial company and availability of Web-based analytics for networks.

March 22, 2011 by Christopher Hall — w, t

Infomercials are coming to digital out-of-home.

In a move that in hindsight seems incredibly obvious, advertising technology firm rVue has partnered with a direct response TV firm to bring direct response ads to the digital signage networks using rVue's Demand Side Platform.

It's a busy time for rVue, as the company also has announced that it is now offering hosted, Web-based analytics for DOOH media at no cost. The company claims that rVue analytics will help businesses use performance data to improve their marketing campaigns and DOOH networks.

"It is a very exciting time, and we're really working hard on bringing forward some what-we-believe-to-be-very-important initiatives and solutions for our space," rVue founder and CEO Jason Kates said in a recent phone interview.

Kates' company just announced a new partnership with Global Infomercial Services to bring alternative advertising channels to product marketers. In other words, DOOH networks will now be able to run shorter versions of well-known television infomercials in a revenue-sharing business model.

"We must be one of the last media in the world who haven't had this developed as a full-blown opportunity for us," Kates said.

Per the partnership, rVue has created a "content deck," where network operators will be able to grab, for instance, a 90-second commercial to play on their screens. The spots will each have unique phone numbers, Kates said, so networks are paid based on how many products are sold using that particular number.

Being advertised are high-quality, "as-seen-on-TV" products such as the "Magic Bullet" and "Baby Bullet" blenders, Kates said.

Most people already know what the products are, Kates said, but seeing them on digital signage offers a different kind of convergence than seeing them at home on TV.

"In digital out-of-home we've got a very unique opportunity because we're dealing with consumers, not an audience," he said. "They're out, they're not sitting at home in their pajamas. They're out; they've got their wallet in their pants or their purse; so that really creates what we believe is a very unique opportunity for direct response for our space."

And all of this is basically just another way of making DOOH an interactive medium, he said.

"This is all actually interactive advertising; the ability to use mobile tied in with digital out-of-home is just fundamental," he said. "Every single ad in digital out-of-home should absolutely have a call to action, whether it's to text for more information, text for a coupon or to call a 1-800 number, whatever it is; every time it should involve consumer engagement.

"So the big picture for us is we believe this medium is interactive advertising."

With regard to the no-cost analytics, Kates said rVue was tackling an old issue with a new approach. RVue has worked to integrate its open API architecture with some of the leading software providers in the space, but now is working on the other end, trying to get analytics from the networks themselves.

According to the release put out by rVue, the company's analytics allow businesses to access proof-of-performance metrics such as network uptime, Internet connectivity, validation of network locations, playlist measurements and geo-tracking.

Being able to have verifiable analytics will differentiate networks, Kates said, "and you get priced accordingly." It also creates confidence on the buy side of the equation, he said.

"We can't make the money worry about that," he said. "So that's why we're taking it upon ourselves to create the confidence over on the buy side."

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