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Part Five Developing the Integrated Marketing Communications Program
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
Exhibit 15-14 Interactive
television has been slow to
catch on
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
15. The Internet and
Interactive Media
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Many marketers believe that the rapid adoption of iTV is just around the corner.
Others feel that it is a very large corner, given that the promise of iTV has not been fulfilled,
even though the technology has been around for quite some time. (A number of
test markets have proved to be unsuccessful and have been abandoned.) While numbers
vary (eMarketer estimates that 20 percent of households will have iTV in 2002
and 50 percent by 2005; others predict less), the fact remains that over 75 percent of
consumers still need to be convinced that they should interact with their TV sets. A
study indicated that 72 percent of U.S. viewers had no interest in interactive services. 33
Another study, conducted in 2002 in Europe—where iTV has been more rapidly
adopted than in the United States—found that 94 percent of interactive customers
haven’t purchased anything through their TVs, 35 percent are not interested in doing
so, and 40 percent can’t figure it out. 34
Nevertheless, some companies have demonstrated successful interactive campaigns.
Volvo sponsored a two-week interactive television campaign during the
NCAA basketball tournament in March 2002 and another on the Bravo cable television
network later in the year. The company stated that it was “surprised” at the number
of inquiries the campaign generated, and it considered the campaign a big
success. 35 Another car dealer, Toyota, will run an integrated campaign using print, TV,
and outdoor, as well as interactive and online ads, to introduce its new 4Runner. The
campaign will be designed to drive viewers to a portal sight to gain more information,
while providing Toyota with a database of interested parties. 36
While interactive TV sounds like the future, so far the results have not been as
encouraging as marketers had hoped for. Two of the test markets for the concept have
proved to be failures, and the major content providers like General Electric (NBC) and
Walt Disney Company (ABC) have expressed less interest in the concept than had
been expected. Microsoft’s WebTV (now MSN TV) has seen limited growth since
2000, 37 and OpenTV—although it has grown—is still of relatively small size. 38 It may
just be that when viewers are watching TV, they just want to watch TV—we will wait
to see.
Wireless
A rapidly growing interactive medium capturing the attention of marketers is wireless
communication. While still in its early stages, some companies are already sending
advertisements, coupons, and direct-response offers through cell phones and PDAs.
By 2002 an estimated $53 million was being spent on mobile ads in Europe, with estimates
that the United States would surpass that amount by 2006. Some applications
already integrate global positioning satellite (GPS) technologies, changing the messages
sent based on the geographic location of the user. Companies have already
begun to use product placements in games as well as to offer special promotions.
While just beginning, wireless is already an integrated medium.