Press Release: TiVo Showcases Increase Consumer Interaction and Help Advertisers Reach Fast- Forwarding Viewers
Sprite, America’s #1 lemon-lime soft drink and TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced a partnership that will feature a cutting-edge interactive advertisement on a TiVo Showcase. Beginning July 24th and running for two weeks, the Showcase will feature a part of Sprite’s “subLYMONal” campaign. This is Sprite’s first interactive advertising run on the TiVo platform.
The TiVo Showcase allows brand marketers to better engage consumers in a deeper, more involved dialogue through long form entertainment content. Sprite’s “subLYMONal” ads will have a “Gold Star Sponsorship” on TiVo Central. Viewers can follow a link to a Showcase where they can view Sprite ads and then, using TiVo’s Trick Play features, find out how to use Sprite “subLYMONal Codes.” TiVo also displays “interactive tags” in Sprite’s advertising as it appears on TiVo DVRs, allowing viewers to pause television and click-through to Sprite’s TiVo Showcase to view more Sprite content, without missing even a second of the TV show they were watching.
“TiVo has the only interactive advertising solution dedicated to DVR viewing and we are excited to add Sprite to our growing list of interactive advertising partners,” said Davina Kent, Vice President, National Advertising Sales at TiVo. “Providing the only platform for DVR-ready creative, TiVo is helping advertisers overcome commercial fast-forwards with unique and exciting advertisements that allow them to further connect with their target audience through the television and increase the overall awareness of the brand.”
“SubLYMONal” advertisements will feature special codes embedded in the content and only revealed if viewed in slow motion that can be entered at the brand’s new website, www.subLYMONal.com. The site allows people to interact with the advertising and provides different ways for consumers to create their own “subLYMONal” experiences.
“Our new ‘subLYMONal’ campaign overtly parodies the concept of subliminal advertising and acknowledges up front that the commercials contain embedded content, so highlighting it for TiVo’s 4.4 million subscribers makes perfect sense,” said Don King, Group Director, Sprite, Coca-Cola North America. “Sprite drinkers are interacting with this advertising in unprecedented numbers and through our partnership with TiVo, even more people will enjoy the ‘subLYMONal’ ads.”
Sprite’s relaunch began in May of this year and is fueled by the Sprite “subLYMONal” advertising campaign, which features commercials that are the opposite of subliminal advertising. Each spot begins with a voiceover that says, “Welcome to ‘subLYMONal’ advertising. For best results, do not blink.” The commercials even indicate that they are “DVR Ready,” tempting people to record and replay them to discover surprising content within. The Lymon- focused action in each ad is interrupted by flashing images and messages and each spot closes with the words, “subLYMONal Message Complete” and the tagline “Obey.”
The TiVo-specific “subLYMONal” advertisements will air on Soul Train Weekly, G4, and MTV. Sprite’s “subLYMONal” campaign was created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami and subLYMONal.com was designed by AKQA of San Francisco.
I recall reading this quoted on some blog somewhere recently …
The ubiquitous press release now seems to be the number one source of information, according to a disturbing report by a group of researchers studying Web search behavior. Press releases tend to be long-winded, full of ludicrous quotes from the CEO bragging about himself and the company, along with all sorts of pie-in-the-sky proclamations. And thus the public is further buffaloed by malarkey, thanks to media ineptitude.
Not sure what made me think of it all of a sudden.
Touche! ;)