Archive for August 19th, 2008

Interactive TV commercials? They’ve been tried several times, beginning with the QUBE cable TV experiment by Warner Cable in Columbus OH back in 1977. That one invented pay-per-view programming, special interest cable channels MTV and Nickelodeon, and oh yes, infomercials.

A new deal between TiVo and Amazon.com wants to push the envelope in combining marketing and TV viewing. Product Purchase, as it’s being called, will let users of the latest versions of TiVo’s recording device use their remote controls to link directly to Amazon.com, learn more about the item they’re seeing in a program, and buy it directly, without turning away from the TV screen. more

McDonald’s “Big Mac Chant Off”, a user-generated content competition looking for the best user performance of the classic “Two all-beef patties” jingle, has found its winner and put his rap into a national TV spot, as promised. But one of the runner-up entrants got his moment in the spotlight too: for having held up a McDonald’s back in 1994. more

Almost half the brands that spend money and resources on search marketing fail to connect those campaigns to their offline marketing efforts, according to research made public this month by search marketing firm iProspect. more