Chowing on Advanced-Advertising Dog Food

Who will be the most aggressive marketers taking advantage of cable’s set-top-addressable and interactive advertising capabilities out of the gate? Probably the MSOs themselves.

That’s according to Tara Walpert Levy, president of Visible World, a New York-based company that provides a services platform for delivering interactive and addressable TV spots. 

Cable companies want to tailor upselling and cross-selling messages to subscribers based on their current level of service — so if someone just has cable TV service, he or she can be pitched a special deal if they upgrade to voice and broadband as well. Throw in an interactive EBIF overlay on top of that, and presto: the sub can instantly turn into a three-services customer right then and there.

"They want to drive up triple-play penetration," said Walpert Levy, as well as promote VOD content that would likely match a subscriber’s interests.

Cablevision Systems is already testing the concept in New York City. At the Cable Show in May, Tom Rutledge, the operator’s COO, referred to addressable-ad trials which delivered Cablevision cross-channel spots and no outside advertisers. For example, Cablevision’s video-only subscribers would have received a spot promoting the triple-play bundle.

The charming expression for this is eating your own dog food – referring to a company that uses technology it has developed itself.

If it all works as planned, cable operators could become their own best case studies showing the power of advanced TV advertising.