Whether we realise it or not interactive television is here and the possibilities for marketers are endless. The majority of us now have cable, SKY or similar digital TV and with this comes the ability to interact with our TVs, programs and watch or re-watch what we want when we want, even pause live TV.
We all have seen the TV programmes telling us to push the red or blue buttons, most of us have tried it, most of us have gone into our digital TV options to buy films to watch, find a programme we have missed or even search the internet and send emails or play games. For the consumer this interactive TV has entered our lives without us even really realising it. For marketers this is a wonderful opportunity to engage with our customers in a way never before possible.
Repurposing our Websites for Interactive TV
Traditional web surfing using a laptop or PC is known as a lean forward medium in the fact that most users lean forward towards the screen to look at the content only a few inches away, so the content and copy is smaller and the ability to display lots of words and images is in place and your website is designed around this.
Television though is known as a lean back medium in the fact that you sit back on your sofa or chair remote in hand a few feet away. Because of this the content on the screen needs to be displayed in a much bigger font so that it is easy to read and view from that distance. For this reason your website would need to be redesigned, or repurposed so that if it is viewed on a television screen it would be easy to read and navigate. For interactive TV it is far better though to have a separate purpose built interactive TV site to direct your customers to.
More Opportunities for Interactive TV
With interactive TV though the possibilities are endless and we need to think past just the website. When customers use interactive TV they are seldom aware they are in fact surfing or interacting as they would on the internet. Because of this they tend to feel safer and those that would never make a purchase on the internet will happily make one on interactive TV, whether it be ordering and paying on their digital TV bill or providing credit card details.
Pizza companies have for awhile now been using this medium to allow customers to view menus and order pizzas and although this is the same for the customers as ordering over the internet they very rarely view this way.
When you advertise on interactive TV or you advertise on normal TV with interactive buttons on your advert (press red to buy now, etc) you offer the customer a chance to interact with you and purchase directly from you there and then. As they do they very rarely realise you are directing them to your own controlled interactive TV website know as a walled garden. Unlike when a customer comes across your website on the internet and it is easy for them to leave, with Interactive TV sites there are no links out (unless you put them there) and no way of leaving your site to open a browser and search the net, yes they can leave if they wish but they won’t go direct to a search engine and find a competitor's site.
So when customers click on your Interactive TV advert they are directed to content fully controlled by you. This added to the fact they feel more secure to make purchases means conversion rates will be higher.
TV is Emotive
The added benefit of television is the fact that it is an emotive medium. When people watch happy programmes they feel happy, when they watch sad films they feel sad and so on. TV advertisers have known this for years to manipulate our senses and advertise to us when we are in an emotive state thus engaging their brands with our emotions.
Add to this the ability to allow the customer to purchase there and then when they are in that emotive state induced by the TV programme and advert and you have an emotive selling power never before heard of. Instant on the spot purchases can be made whilst the customer is in the emotive state before reason and logic has time to set in. Add in time-limited offers and watch sales increase “press red now to buy now, this offer only lasts for the next 15 minutes.”
Emotive, reactive, instant purchases are a potential goldmine for TV advertisers. We are only at the start of this advertising and marketing medium but the potential is only limited by the advertiser’s imagination.
Getting Started
Maybe advertising on TV is a bit far off let alone setting up an advert with interactive red buttons and so on but there are other ways into this medium. Advertising on the interactive content pages of your digital TV’s menus and other interactive areas. Banner and similar adverts with links to your interactive TV site can be placed in these areas. Next time you use your digital TV have a look at the adverts that you see, click on them and look at the walled gardened ITV sites they take you to.
