Christine Larson


Home About Me Writing Samples My Book For my Students		What Works Now.(advertising media) By Christine Larson 10 September 2001 ADWEEK Eastern Edition With equal parts caution and enthusiasm, advertisers develop emerging technology campaigns. IN THE WAKE OF THE dot-com debacle, amid the chilliest ad climate in years, it scarcely seems the time for high-tech speculation. Still, faced with the steady splintering of media choices, advertisers can't afford to overlook new ways of reaching their targets--even if that means engaging in ventures that faintly recall the early days of Internet madness. This time around, though, any new-media advertising effort is deliberated, discussed and dissected before a client decides whether to actually go through with it. But a brave few are taking the plunge, applying old-media standards in their approach to new options. "We're looking at a number of areas, mostly with an eye toward what they might evolve to in the future," says Linda Thomas Brooks, executive managing director of GM Me diaworks, IPG's dedicated media buying unit. "We're not looking at anything and saying 'This is the killer app,' but they all have elements we think will ... give us insight." This kind of wary-but-willing attitude has already given many advertisers an early glimpse into what works in emerging media. Broadband is perhaps the most accessible to advertisers and consumers. With the number of broadband Web connections expected to more than triple in the next four years--to nearly 80 million in 2005, according to Forrester Research--content providers and advertisers have already started beefing up content with audio, video and animation. "What will work in broadband are things that are 2 minutes long by 120 minutes deep--where the 120 minutes is in--depth content like graphics and animations and links for the user to explore," says Bob Greenberg, founder, chairman and chief creative officer of interactive agency R/GA in New York . Yahoo! is forging ahead in that area. The company launched several broadband ventures in the past year, including Yahoo! ShoppingVision, combining video and e-commerce, and Yahoo! FinanceVision, which broadcasts live financial news. Users see video in one panel, with relevant data and a browser in other windows. FinanceVision advertisers, including Cadillac, KPMG and Travelocity.com, can enrich video spots with information in the data window and browser. For Travelocity.com, "the response rate was higher than what we'd expected," says Michael A lt omari, vp/sales and service of the Fort Worth --based company. In the case of interactive TV, advertisers are focusing on simple applications that are available through existing set-top boxes. Among these options are Wink Communications and RespondTV, which allow advertisers to enhance ads with pop-up dialogue boxes. "The short-term interest when you're looking at something like Wink is whether the cost per lead is cheaper than traditional media," says Mitch West, director, customer relationship management for GlaxoSmithKline. The company ran a spot allowing viewers to request information on migraine medicine Imitrex. "We thought it would take six months to reach [our response goal.] Wink achieved it within a week," says West Another iTV option, Gemstar-TV Guide International's interactive program guide is being tested by Sears and General Motors. With iTV expected to reach 48 million households by 2005, the medium's reach and response appeal should make it "No. 1 on the priority list for testing," says Jim Nail, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "It's going to happen first and have the biggest impact on the thought process around marketing." It's a different story with wireless. Despite success in Japan and Europe, American consumers seem unlikely to embrace advertising on their cell phones and PDAs. "When you ask consumers what kind of wireless content they need, they say directory services. After that, they have a real hard time coming up with anything," says Nail. Still, some advertisers say they can't afford to write off a medium expected to reach some 82 million people by 2005. Cosmetics retailer Sephora ran a wireless Valentine's campaign this year, enabling cell phone and PDA users to order last-minute gifts. WindWire, a network for wireless ad sales, says clickthrough rates topped 10 percent. This summer, Jeep used PDA content service AvantGo as part of the Jeep Liberty launch campaign. Banners on AvantGo's home page enticed readers to click: They received a full-screen image of the Liberty, a survey and a brochure offer. "We've been knocked off our chairs by the response," says Diane Jackson, senior manager, Jeep Global Communications. However, many industry observers say wireless devices are best suited for serving existing customers with updates, rather than capturing new buyers. Combined, these emerging platforms, plus narrowband Web efforts, should produce $63 billion in ad revenues by 2005, according to Forrester. Exactly how those dollars are best spent will depend on consumer behavior with each medium. "It has to come from the customer," says Shelley Nandkeolyar, vp/e-commerce at San Francisco-based Williams--Sonoma. Nandkeolyar favors cautious testing, allocating up to 5 percent of his budget to experimentation. "We constantly need to test and learn," he says. "But u lt imately, I need to be perfecting this game, not crazily investing in new parts of it." Phones Client: Subway sandwiches Platform: Wireless Web/cell phones Whether it comes via cell phone or PDA, most wireless advertising today follows the pull model, waiting quietly for users to stumble across an ad while surfing wireless Web sites. But the pull model fails to take advantage of the unique promise of wireless delivery--the ability to reach users at a specific time and place. Say, right before lunch. That's when Timothy Schiel, owner of two Subway sandwich shops in Boulder, Colo., wants to reach his customers. Last year, Schiel took part in a trial by wireless Web network SkyGo, which tested push ads over wireless devices. The study's 1,000 participants in Boulder opted to receive advertising from various advertisers. For several months during the trial, Schiel pushed out a series of sandwich promotions and coupons for one of his stores. Customers could bring in their phones and redeem the coupon for a free sandwich or soda. "The advantage I see is that you can give the phone a little jingle and they hear it. Your timing is essential, you want to get them at about 10:30 or 11 a.m., when they're hungry," Schiel says. On average, four to five customers a day redeemed offers, out of the store's usual daily traffic of 100 people. "From my perspective, it's no different than radio, when you drop an ad when they're starting to think about lunch," he says. Overall, he was pleased with the response rate and says he'd be interested in a wireless campaign in the future--depending on costs, of course. For now, though, wireless Web advertising via cell phones seems a long way from prime time. "There's not much there," says Jim Nail, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "My feeling is that consumers really won't want advertising on these devices, which are primarily communication and efficiency devices. Anything that gets in the way of achieving that will not be widely accepted." PDAs Streetbeam posters Client: Satheby's Platform: Beaming posters Who says phone booths are obsolete? If nothing else, they provide a fine home for a new breed of posters equipped with infrared beaming technology. The posters, created by New York--based Streetbeam, allow advertisers to transmit information and applications to users of handheld devices or PDAs. Last spring, Sotheby's used 10 beaming posters in New York's financial district to send a calendar of Sotheby's auction dates to users' handheld organizers. "Sotheby's is an advertiser you wouldn't expect to see on a device like this," says P.J. Leary, director of communications mediums at New York--based Bouchez Kent & Co., Sotheby's agency. "But the calendar of events is important, and this is a very user-friendly way to provide it." The infrared delivery technology also offered a hidden benefit: the pass-along effect. "People who download are really engaged in your brand, and they're likely to beam it to their friends. We think if 100 people download it, we're probably reaching 600 people," Leary says. In conceiving the campaign, Sotheby's was careful to avoid overloading the user's calendar. "I once mistakenly downloaded the entire Knicks schedule, and now I see those dates every time I look at my calendar and get irritated," says Leary. To avoid this problem, Sotheby's had Streetbeam add a layer to its software that enabled users to fi lt er out events they weren't interested in. During the four-week campaign, 281 people downloaded the application. "We were very pleased," Leary says. "This is a tool, not just a cute test. It's something that works." In the future, Sotheby's is interested in beaming the calendar to people who enter their lobby. The beaming poster gimmick is more than a fun party trick, says Jupiter analyst Marissa Gluck. "It's a nove lt y, but we're seeing more and more of it. You're going to see outdoor advertising transformed over time, away from static displays," she says, citing airports as a particularly promising location for Streetbeam-style posters. Streetbeam is currently expanding into San Francisco, Washington, Boston and Atlanta, and adding posters in major train stations in New York. Other Streetbeam advertisers have included Banana Republic, Warner Bros., AmEx Blue and Morgan Stanley. InteractiveTV Client: Ford Outfitters / Platform: Wink-enhanced ad Some interactive TV ventures are still struggling to get off the ground, but Wink has been running enhanced ads for more than two years. The system, now available in 4 million homes and expected to reach 6 million by year's end, lets advertisers communicate directly with Wink-subscribed viewers during the run of a traditional 30-second or 60-second TV spot. An interactive icon appears onscreen that allows viewers to open a dialogue box, where advertisers pose questions, offer free samples, solicit contest entries or even sell products. When viewers request further information, Wink captures billing information off their set-top boxes and passes it to the advertiser for fulfillment. "We've had phenomenal success with them in distributing materials," says Sara Hall, emerging media strategist with J. Wa lt er Thompson in Detroit, who worked on Wink ads for Ford Outfitters, the automaker's umbrella brand for its line of sports utility vehicles. One Wink-enabled Ford ad asked viewers if they'd like a Ford Outfitters catalog. If so, they were asked to select a model--Excursion, Expedition or Explorer--and then specify their interest in a two-door, four-door or SportTrack edition. While the spot successfully allowed Ford to mail the right brochure to the right prospects, it received lower response rates than ads offering fewer choices. "We learned that keeping screens to a minimum will increase the number of responses," Hall says. "Sometimes the commercial ended while people were still trying to find the remote. "There are better points within the creative to launch the boxes," says Hall. "You want to wait until they know what the advertisement's about, while still giving them enough time to respond." A lt hough Hall has been "very pleased" with the campaign's resu lt s, she warns against taking early response rates too seriously--on Wink or any other emerging platform. "What's tough now is to figure out if you're getting a good response rate because you're reaching the right people, or because people are playing around with the system because it's new," she says. Like most new technologies, Wink's system still needs some tweaking, says Jupiter analyst Marissa Gluck. "The fulfillment piece isn't ready yet," she says. She should know: Gluck responded to a Wink ad, requesting more information an a prescription drug, in March. She's still waiting. Broadband Web Content Client: Pepsi / Event: "Britney and Justin's Shopping Adventure" on Yahoo! ShoppingVision During the months of July and August, Yahoo! Shopping Vision--one of several broadband ventures launched by the mega-portal in the past year--ran its first celebrity promotion, sponsored by Pepsi. The four-episode Web show featured video of teen pop stars Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake on shopping sprees in New York and London. In four episodes, each lasting three to five minutes, Britney and Justin visited FAQ Schwarz and stores in London's Covent Garden district. Much of the merchandise they purchased--from jelly beans to designer handbags-- appeared in a browser window beneath the video, allowing viewers to shop along. After the spree, Pepsi ran its 90-second TV spot featuring Spears. Me anwhile, viewers could also register to receive e-mail about future Pepsi/Britney events. "What was appealing about the Britney and Justin shopping spree was that it provided behind-the-scenes coverage, which we knew users like, on a site with the Pepsi logo, where we could roll seamlessly into our 90-second spot," says John Vail, Pepsi's director of digital media and marketing. "It was a really good branding opportunity." Earlier in the year, Pepsi had been pleasantly surprised by more than 1 million requests for streaming video of Britney's ad shoot, which the company posted on its site. "It really opened our eyes to the fact that there's an enormous interest in streaming," says Vail. The Britney shopping promotion drew some 800,000 viewers, who spent an average of four minutes watching the video. The promotion's success has encouraged Pepsi's rich-media efforts. In August, the company rolled out a Web mini-series using additional footage from Britney's ad shoot. Running several episodes helped to boost traffic to the promotion, says Jennifer Dulski, senior brand manager of Yahoo! Shopping. "We had 75,000 streams on the first day, and the buzz extended throughout the promotion." The Britney promotion sold more products than any other ShoppingVision promotion to date. In the future, Yahoo! may offer similar celebrity promotion opportunities to individual vendors. Mobile Client: Northwest Airlines! Platform: PDAs via AvantGo While national advertisers including Jeep, CompUSA and Bank of America have all launched wireless and mobile marketing initiatives aimed at PDA users this year, many experts feel that hand-helds are better suited for customer relationship management than for campaigns based on interstitials and banners. "I don't think wireless is going to be used heavily in the short-term for customer acquisition," says Barry Peters, director of emerging media at interactive agency Lot2l in San Francisco. "Users will get aggravated by that pretty quickly. I think wireless will be used much more for customer retention and communication." That's the course Northwest Airlines has charted. The company has long relied on wireless messaging to provide customer service, starting with a flight update paging service in 1999. In 2000, the airline created a wireless Web site aimed at cell phones, available through AT&T, Sprint and Omnisky. In December 2000, the company offered its own AvantGo channel, to provide information and tools to its customers via their PDAs. "We've focused on features that are really going to provide utility to the customer:' says Chris Mausolf, manager of e-commerce at Northwest Airlines, headquartered in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The channel provides customers with flight updates, best fares, mileage club information and more. Wireless PDAs can sync up for real-time updates, while "semi-connected" PDAs-those that access the Web through desktop PC systems-receive updates when users sync with their PCs. Through its various wireless or semi-connected initiatives, Northwest sends out nearly a million messages and receives 100,000 unique visitors per month, says Mausolf. The company's most popular wireless offering is its upgrade messaging system for elite members of Northwest's mileage club. The Northwest channel has quickly gained customer support, ranking in the top 25 of AvantGo's 1,500 channels. The interface isn't just a nice perk for customers: "It's a cost-cutting measure:' says Mausolf. "There's a quantitative benefit to those types of things. We have had fewer calls coming in, and there's definitely a savings." A lt hough she could not release specific figures, she says during Northwest's first six months with AvantGo, the company experienced 300 percent more cost savings than anticipated. To reap maximum benefit, Mausolf's team of 10 in-house developers tries to offer content for mast kinds of wireless devices, including pagers, phones and PDAs. Me anwhile, they've strictly limited the content provided to each device. "What we did not do is port our whole Web site to wireless. Customers don't want a 30-page members guide on a Palm Pilot," says Mausolf. "We focused on tools that would most help in travel planning." Interactive Program Guide Gemstar-TV Guide International Client: Sears I Platform: Interactive Program Guide Whatever interactive TV offerings eventually cap the public's imagination, one thing is sure: Viewers will still need help finding the shows they want to watch. That's why Sears signed a one-year deal with Gemstar-TV Guide in July to advertise on the company's interactive program guide. "There's a fair amount of speculation and hypothesis about how people will use digital television, but as the number of choices expand, you'll need an IPG to sort things out for you," says Perianne Grignon, director of media services for Sears, headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Research from Gemstar suggests that the average IPG user visits the guide four times an hour. What the typical IPG ad--a small, square graphic box that, when clicked, summons up a text box--lacks in creativity, it makes up for in reach. The system, which reaches some 12 million households, is expected to grow to 20 million by the end of the year. In the future, IPG ads may expand to include overlays over programs; currently the channel and program name are listed when a user selects a show from the IPG. "Two things came together for us on this," says Grignon. "One, it's on the cutting edge; a new way to reach our customer. But it's also got the big circulation and reach we need for our marketing plan." Sears began experimenting with GemStar late last year, and quickly learned that IPG users behave very differently than typical TV viewers. "You're not expecting a viewer to spend many minutes in this space, but they will go back quite frequently and you have to design for that," Grignon says. "You have to do a lot of questioning about how often your message should change. It's a very rapid-fire space, so these are quick messages." Sears also found that the IPG platform seemed to work better for immediate promotions, rather than general branding messages. "People want to know what offers are in our stores tomorrow. We got better awareness levels off those than off messages that were more long term," she says. Christine Larson writes about technology from Sacramento , Calif.

What Works Now.(advertising media)

By Christine Larson

10 September 2001
ADWEEK Eastern Edition

With equal parts caution and enthusiasm, advertisers develop emerging technology campaigns.

IN THE WAKE OF THE dot-com debacle, amid the chilliest ad climate in years, it scarcely seems the time for high-tech speculation.

Still, faced with the steady splintering of media choices, advertisers can't afford to overlook new ways of reaching their targets--even if that means engaging in ventures that faintly recall the early days of Internet madness. This time around, though, any new-media advertising effort is deliberated, discussed and dissected before a client decides whether to actually go through with it. But a brave few are taking the plunge, applying old-media standards in their approach to new options.

"We're looking at a number of areas, mostly with an eye toward what they might evolve to in the future," says Linda Thomas Brooks, executive managing director of GM Me diaworks, IPG's dedicated media buying unit. "We're not looking at anything and saying 'This is the killer app,' but they all have elements we think will ... give us insight."

This kind of wary-but-willing attitude has already given many advertisers an early glimpse into what works in emerging media.

Broadband is perhaps the most accessible to advertisers and consumers. With the number of broadband Web connections expected to more than triple in the next four years--to nearly 80 million in 2005, according to Forrester Research--content providers and advertisers have already started beefing up content with audio, video and animation.

"What will work in broadband are things that are 2 minutes long by 120 minutes deep--where the 120 minutes is in--depth content like graphics and animations and links for the user to explore," says Bob Greenberg, founder, chairman and chief creative officer of interactive agency R/GA in New York .

Yahoo! is forging ahead in that area. The company launched several broadband ventures in the past year, including Yahoo! ShoppingVision, combining video and e-commerce, and Yahoo! FinanceVision, which broadcasts live financial news. Users see video in one panel, with relevant data and a browser in other windows. FinanceVision advertisers, including Cadillac, KPMG and Travelocity.com, can enrich video spots with information in the data window and browser. For Travelocity.com, "the response rate was higher than what we'd expected," says Michael A lt omari, vp/sales and service of the Fort Worth --based company.

In the case of interactive TV, advertisers are focusing on simple applications that are available through existing set-top boxes. Among these options are Wink Communications and RespondTV, which allow advertisers to enhance ads with pop-up dialogue boxes. "The short-term interest when you're looking at something like Wink is whether the cost per lead is cheaper than traditional media," says Mitch West, director, customer relationship management for GlaxoSmithKline. The company ran a spot allowing viewers to request information on migraine medicine Imitrex. "We thought it would take six months to reach [our response goal.] Wink achieved it within a week," says West

Another iTV option, Gemstar-TV Guide International's interactive program guide is being tested by Sears and General Motors.

With iTV expected to reach 48 million households by 2005, the medium's reach and response appeal should make it "No. 1 on the priority list for testing," says Jim Nail, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "It's going to happen first and have the biggest impact on the thought process around marketing."

It's a different story with wireless. Despite success in Japan and Europe, American consumers seem unlikely to embrace advertising on their cell phones and PDAs. "When you ask consumers what kind of wireless content they need, they say directory services. After that, they have a real hard time coming up with anything," says Nail. Still, some advertisers say they can't afford to write off a medium expected to reach some 82 million people by 2005. Cosmetics retailer Sephora ran a wireless Valentine's campaign this year, enabling cell phone and PDA users to order last-minute gifts. WindWire, a network for wireless ad sales, says clickthrough rates topped 10 percent.

This summer, Jeep used PDA content service AvantGo as part of the Jeep Liberty launch campaign. Banners on AvantGo's home page enticed readers to click: They received a full-screen image of the Liberty, a survey and a brochure offer. "We've been knocked off our chairs by the response," says Diane Jackson, senior manager, Jeep Global Communications. However, many industry observers say wireless devices are best suited for serving existing customers with updates, rather than capturing new buyers.

Combined, these emerging platforms, plus narrowband Web efforts, should produce $63 billion in ad revenues by 2005, according to Forrester. Exactly how those dollars are best spent will depend on consumer behavior with each medium. "It has to come from the customer," says Shelley Nandkeolyar, vp/e-commerce at San Francisco-based Williams--Sonoma. Nandkeolyar favors cautious testing, allocating up to 5 percent of his budget to experimentation. "We constantly need to test and learn," he says. "But u lt imately, I need to be perfecting this game, not crazily investing in new parts of it."

Phones

Client: Subway sandwiches

Platform: Wireless Web/cell phones

Whether it comes via cell phone or PDA, most wireless advertising today follows the pull model, waiting quietly for users to stumble across an ad while surfing wireless Web sites. But the pull model fails to take advantage of the unique promise of wireless delivery--the ability to reach users at a specific time and place. Say, right before lunch.

That's when Timothy Schiel, owner of two Subway sandwich shops in Boulder, Colo., wants to reach his customers. Last year, Schiel took part in a trial by wireless Web network SkyGo, which tested push ads over wireless devices. The study's 1,000 participants in Boulder opted to receive advertising from various advertisers. For several months during the trial, Schiel pushed out a series of sandwich promotions and coupons for one of his stores. Customers could bring in their phones and redeem the coupon for a free sandwich or soda.

"The advantage I see is that you can give the phone a little jingle and they hear it. Your timing is essential, you want to get them at about 10:30 or 11 a.m., when they're hungry," Schiel says. On average, four to five customers a day redeemed offers, out of the store's usual daily traffic of 100 people. "From my perspective, it's no different than radio, when you drop an ad when they're starting to think about lunch," he says. Overall, he was pleased with the response rate and says he'd be interested in a wireless campaign in the future--depending on costs, of course. For now, though, wireless Web advertising via cell phones seems a long way from prime time.

"There's not much there," says Jim Nail, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "My feeling is that consumers really won't want advertising on these devices, which are primarily communication and efficiency devices. Anything that gets in the way of achieving that will not be widely accepted."

PDAs

Streetbeam posters Client: Satheby's

Platform: Beaming posters

Who says phone booths are obsolete? If nothing else, they provide a fine home for a new breed of posters equipped with infrared beaming technology. The posters, created by New York--based Streetbeam, allow advertisers to transmit information and applications to users of handheld devices or PDAs. Last spring, Sotheby's used 10 beaming posters in New York's financial district to send a calendar of Sotheby's auction dates to users' handheld organizers.

"Sotheby's is an advertiser you wouldn't expect to see on a device like this," says P.J. Leary, director of communications mediums at New York--based Bouchez Kent & Co., Sotheby's agency. "But the calendar of events is important, and this is a very user-friendly way to provide it."

The infrared delivery technology also offered a hidden benefit: the pass-along effect. "People who download are really engaged in your brand, and they're likely to beam it to their friends. We think if 100 people download it, we're probably reaching 600 people," Leary says.

In conceiving the campaign, Sotheby's was careful to avoid overloading the user's calendar. "I once mistakenly downloaded the entire Knicks schedule, and now I see those dates every time I look at my calendar and get irritated," says Leary. To avoid this problem, Sotheby's had Streetbeam add a layer to its software that enabled users to fi lt er out events they weren't interested in.

During the four-week campaign, 281 people downloaded the application. "We were very pleased," Leary says. "This is a tool, not just a cute test. It's something that works." In the future, Sotheby's is interested in beaming the calendar to people who enter their lobby.

The beaming poster gimmick is more than a fun party trick, says Jupiter analyst Marissa Gluck. "It's a nove lt y, but we're seeing more and more of it. You're going to see outdoor advertising transformed over time, away from static displays," she says, citing airports as a particularly promising location for Streetbeam-style posters.

Streetbeam is currently expanding into San Francisco, Washington, Boston and Atlanta, and adding posters in major train stations in New York. Other Streetbeam advertisers have included Banana Republic, Warner Bros., AmEx Blue and Morgan Stanley.

InteractiveTV

Client: Ford Outfitters / Platform: Wink-enhanced ad

Some interactive TV ventures are still struggling to get off the ground, but Wink has been running enhanced ads for more than two years. The system, now available in 4 million homes and expected to reach 6 million by year's end, lets advertisers communicate directly with Wink-subscribed viewers during the run of a traditional 30-second or 60-second TV spot. An interactive icon appears onscreen that allows viewers to open a dialogue box, where advertisers pose questions, offer free samples, solicit contest entries or even sell products. When viewers request further information, Wink captures billing information off their set-top boxes and passes it to the advertiser for fulfillment.

"We've had phenomenal success with them in distributing materials," says Sara Hall, emerging media strategist with J. Wa lt er Thompson in Detroit, who worked on Wink ads for Ford Outfitters, the automaker's umbrella brand for its line of sports utility vehicles.

One Wink-enabled Ford ad asked viewers if they'd like a Ford Outfitters catalog. If so, they were asked to select a model--Excursion, Expedition or Explorer--and then specify their interest in a two-door, four-door or SportTrack edition. While the spot successfully allowed Ford to mail the right brochure to the right prospects, it received lower response rates than ads offering fewer choices.

"We learned that keeping screens to a minimum will increase the number of responses," Hall says. "Sometimes the commercial ended while people were still trying to find the remote.

"There are better points within the creative to launch the boxes," says Hall. "You want to wait until they know what the advertisement's about, while still giving them enough time to respond."

A lt hough Hall has been "very pleased" with the campaign's resu lt s, she warns against taking early response rates too seriously--on Wink or any other emerging platform.

"What's tough now is to figure out if you're getting a good response rate because you're reaching the right people, or because people are playing around with the system because it's new," she says.

Like most new technologies, Wink's system still needs some tweaking, says Jupiter analyst Marissa Gluck. "The fulfillment piece isn't ready yet," she says. She should know: Gluck responded to a Wink ad, requesting more information an a prescription drug, in March. She's still waiting.

Broadband Web Content

Client: Pepsi / Event: "Britney and Justin's Shopping Adventure" on Yahoo! ShoppingVision

During the months of July and August, Yahoo! Shopping Vision--one of several broadband ventures launched by the mega-portal in the past year--ran its first celebrity promotion, sponsored by Pepsi. The four-episode Web show featured video of teen pop stars Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake on shopping sprees in New York and London.

In four episodes, each lasting three to five minutes, Britney and Justin visited FAQ Schwarz and stores in London's Covent Garden district. Much of the merchandise they purchased--from jelly beans to designer handbags-- appeared in a browser window beneath the video, allowing viewers to shop along. After the spree, Pepsi ran its 90-second TV spot featuring Spears. Me anwhile, viewers could also register to receive e-mail about future Pepsi/Britney events.

"What was appealing about the Britney and Justin shopping spree was that it provided behind-the-scenes coverage, which we knew users like, on a site with the Pepsi logo, where we could roll seamlessly into our 90-second spot," says John Vail, Pepsi's director of digital media and marketing. "It was a really good branding opportunity."

Earlier in the year, Pepsi had been pleasantly surprised by more than 1 million requests for streaming video of Britney's ad shoot, which the company posted on its site. "It really opened our eyes to the fact that there's an enormous interest in streaming," says Vail.

The Britney shopping promotion drew some 800,000 viewers, who spent an average of four minutes watching the video. The promotion's success has encouraged Pepsi's rich-media efforts. In August, the company rolled out a Web mini-series using additional footage from Britney's ad shoot.

Running several episodes helped to boost traffic to the promotion, says Jennifer Dulski, senior brand manager of Yahoo! Shopping. "We had 75,000 streams on the first day, and the buzz extended throughout the promotion." The Britney promotion sold more products than any other ShoppingVision promotion to date. In the future, Yahoo! may offer similar celebrity promotion opportunities to individual vendors.

Mobile

Client: Northwest Airlines! Platform: PDAs via AvantGo

While national advertisers including Jeep, CompUSA and Bank of America have all launched wireless and mobile marketing initiatives aimed at PDA users this year, many experts feel that hand-helds are better suited for customer relationship management than for campaigns based on interstitials and banners.

"I don't think wireless is going to be used heavily in the short-term for customer acquisition," says Barry Peters, director of emerging media at interactive agency Lot2l in San Francisco. "Users will get aggravated by that pretty quickly. I think wireless will be used much more for customer retention and communication."

That's the course Northwest Airlines has charted. The company has long relied on wireless messaging to provide customer service, starting with a flight update paging service in 1999. In 2000, the airline created a wireless Web site aimed at cell phones, available through AT&T, Sprint and Omnisky. In December 2000, the company offered its own AvantGo channel, to provide information and tools to its customers via their PDAs.

"We've focused on features that are really going to provide utility to the customer:' says Chris Mausolf, manager of e-commerce at Northwest Airlines, headquartered in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The channel provides customers with flight updates, best fares, mileage club information and more. Wireless PDAs can sync up for real-time updates, while "semi-connected" PDAs-those that access the Web through desktop PC systems-receive updates when users sync with their PCs.

Through its various wireless or semi-connected initiatives, Northwest sends out nearly a million messages and receives 100,000 unique visitors per month, says Mausolf. The company's most popular wireless offering is its upgrade messaging system for elite members of Northwest's mileage club.

The Northwest channel has quickly gained customer support, ranking in the top 25 of AvantGo's 1,500 channels. The interface isn't just a nice perk for customers: "It's a cost-cutting measure:' says Mausolf. "There's a quantitative benefit to those types of things. We have had fewer calls coming in, and there's definitely a savings." A lt hough she could not release specific figures, she says during Northwest's first six months with AvantGo, the company experienced 300 percent more cost savings than anticipated.

To reap maximum benefit, Mausolf's team of 10 in-house developers tries to offer content for mast kinds of wireless devices, including pagers, phones and PDAs. Me anwhile, they've strictly limited the content provided to each device. "What we did not do is port our whole Web site to wireless. Customers don't want a 30-page members guide on a Palm Pilot," says Mausolf. "We focused on tools that would most help in travel planning."

Interactive Program Guide

Gemstar-TV Guide International Client: Sears I Platform: Interactive Program Guide

Whatever interactive TV offerings eventually cap the public's imagination, one thing is sure: Viewers will still need help finding the shows they want to watch. That's why Sears signed a one-year deal with Gemstar-TV Guide in July to advertise on the company's interactive program guide.

"There's a fair amount of speculation and hypothesis about how people will use digital television, but as the number of choices expand, you'll need an IPG to sort things out for you," says Perianne Grignon, director of media services for Sears, headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Research from Gemstar suggests that the average IPG user visits the guide four times an hour.

What the typical IPG ad--a small, square graphic box that, when clicked, summons up a text box--lacks in creativity, it makes up for in reach. The system, which reaches some 12 million households, is expected to grow to 20 million by the end of the year. In the future, IPG ads may expand to include overlays over programs; currently the channel and program name are listed when a user selects a show from the IPG.

"Two things came together for us on this," says Grignon. "One, it's on the cutting edge; a new way to reach our customer. But it's also got the big circulation and reach we need for our marketing plan."

Sears began experimenting with GemStar late last year, and quickly learned that IPG users behave very differently than typical TV viewers. "You're not expecting a viewer to spend many minutes in this space, but they will go back quite frequently and you have to design for that," Grignon says. "You have to do a lot of questioning about how often your message should change. It's a very rapid-fire space, so these are quick messages."

Sears also found that the IPG platform seemed to work better for immediate promotions, rather than general branding messages. "People want to know what offers are in our stores tomorrow. We got better awareness levels off those than off messages that were more long term," she says.

Christine Larson writes about technology from Sacramento , Calif.