Interactive television commercials — through which viewers could click on their remotes to receive more information, product samples or gift certificates from the advertisers — worked better than expected in a trial last fall in the northeast, Advertising Age says.
Cablevision ran the trial with ads from Gillette, Benjamin Moore, retailer Century 21, Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive Co. and its 3.1 million subscribers in the New York, Connecticut and New Jersey area.
“Responses were strong enough that the campaigns were taken off the air after an average of half their scheduled runs after advertisers were caught low on promotional inventory, according to Cablevision and marketers,” Ad Age says.
“The campaigns’ results suggest that TV can in fact deliver Web-like metrics and interactive opportunities — and that consumers are willing to use their TVs like computers.”