While the launch of the Audi Channel in the U.K. is a noteworthy development in and of itself, the new venture carries greater weight when looked at in terms of it signaling a trend that’s gaining momentum. The notion of maintaining a channel that features a mix of entertainment and infotainment fare to help drive brand and build business is starting to prove appealing to a growing group of clients who are deploying different means to a similar end.
The Audi Channel, which debuted on Oct. 24, is being broadcast to some 7.6 million British households over the Sky Digital satellite TV platform. Additional U.K. homes figure to get picked up in the months ahead when negotiations are completed for Audi Channel carriage on terrestrial digital platforms operated by Freeview and cable TV operators. The 24/7 channel is also being made available to broadband Internet users via Audi U.K.’s Web site.
Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London, has been working with Audi on the development of the channel over the past two years. The agency views it as a means to engage on a deeper level with prospective consumers, complementing traditional media advertising. (See sidebar story for more on the Audi Channel.)
SILVERSCREEN
Meanwhile on Nov. 7, Nordstrom introduced a downloadable broadband channel: Nordstrom Silverscreen. Created by Fallon, Minneapolis, the branded channel offers video content that combines fashion, music, technology and pop culture–as well as click through capability to the retailer’s Web site that enables viewers to buy Nordstrom apparel.
Nordstrom sent out an email invite to 2.5 million shoppers to download Silverscreen, which is powered by technology from Maven Networks, Cambridge, Mass. Premiering on the channel is a video re-mix of The Go-Gos’ “Our Lips Are Sealed,” directed by Olivier Gondry of bicoastal/international Partizan. (Director Michel Gondry, also of Partizan, executive produced the music clip.) FatBoy Slim created the music remix for “Our Lips Are Sealed.” The video features new footage blended into the original 1981 clip; the new elements show women in merchandise available at Nordstrom.
In December, another video, “I’ll Tumble For You,” from Culture Club–with a music remix by Junkie XL–is slated to premiere on Silverscreen. Olivier Gondry also directed this clip.
Additionally Silverscreen offers a mixing room where shoppers can create new personalized versions of the video being shown. In the same mixing room, viewers can make their own fashion statements, creating outfits by mixing and matching articles of featured Nordstrom clothing on a mannequin.
The interactive media technology behind the Silverscreen channel allows it to live on a computer desktop, automatically providing new content and informing users when it becomes available. Plans call for the entertainment programming to be updated on a monthly basis. After the Culture Club video, an animated piece is set to debut in January. The animation is being created by Ruben Toledo, an illustrator who does couture and designer print ads.
The hope is that word of mouth will add to Silverscreen’s audience. For instance, viewers can forward to friends the newly remixed music clip fare as well as the new Nordstrom fashions.
“There’s a dual purpose to this,” explained Susan Treacy, group creative director at Fallon. “One is a branding effort. Overall, we’re trying to elevate [Nordstrom’s] fashion authority…The second is to make [shoppers] more aware of the selection of what’s available at Nordstrom and to make them aware of how great it is. They can actually buy those pieces from the video and then in the mixing room component.
Fallon is promoting the Silverscreen launch as an entertainment event, with an insert in Entertainment Weekly, newspaper ads and online banners. Silverscreen posters have also been hung up in trendy Los Angeles and Manhattan neighborhoods.
Nordstrom becomes the latest client to launch a Maven-powered broadband entertainment channel, following such advertising mainstays as Pepsi and General Motors.
FREEZONE
Video On Demand (VOD) was first most widely thought of in terms of TV homes being able to immediately access and view feature films, bypassing neighborhood video rental stores. Then VOD for premium entertainment channels (i.e.–episodes of The Sopranos from HBO) came, and most recently a buzz has been generated by what some have dubbed as “primetime anytime”–namely CBS’ announcement last week that it would make some of its primetime shows available through Comcast’s VOD system. Comcast cable subscribers can watch new series episodes for about $1 each. This news came right after NBC announced a similar arrangement with DirecTV’s VOD service.
Yet overlooked amidst the flow of content into VOD are the applications and implications that the medium carries for the advertising community and content providers. Cox Media is looking to mine some of that potential with its digital cable VOD service FreeZone, which offers not only free content from various channels (i.e., Discovery, A&E) but also advertiser fare. Earlier this year, FreeZone was launched in Cox’s VOD markets across the country–including San Diego (after a trial run there), Oklahoma City, Hampton Roads, Va., Las Vegas, New Orleans, Omaha, Orange County, Calif., and Connecticut and Rhode Island. Now about 50 percent of Cox’s customers receive FreeZone.
During the pilot FreeZone program in San Diego–which began in 2002–Volvo maintained an adventure channel with entertainment and informational product content (including a piece which unveiled its then new XC 90 sports utility vehicle).
FreeZone graduated from San Diego to multiple markets in January 2005, after Cox spent much of ’04 building its VOD infrastructure. According to David Porter, director of new media business development for Cox Media, the platform can support advertiser channels. Thus far, no such channel has emerged on the expanded FreeZone primarily because, said Porter, clients don’t have enough content as of yet to fuel a ’round the clock channel.
Nonetheless, Porter related that General Motors, for example, has expressed interest in establishing a channel. Discussions between Cox and GM were described by Porter as being in the “conceptual stage,” with the moniker GM Showroom being bandied about.
Porter said that Cox’s vision is that advertisers, “especially automotive companies,” will launch channels.
Meanwhile, the expanded FreeZone has been utilized by clients for other initiatives. BMW made its series of “The Hire” short films–which first broke on the Web–available to FreeZone households. Cadillac launched a new car model with infotainment on FreeZone. And Pontiac opted for program sponsorship on Cox’s VOD service.
Outside the automotive arena, the Tourism Board of Australia ran a Down Under short on the FreeZone platform in San Diego, with a toll-free phone number that enabled the client to track the leads generated specifically from the VOD exposure.
Cox can also supply FreeZone clients with a VOD usage report, with such info as how many times a household viewed a piece of content, the number of homes that the programming reached, the zip codes of those households, and during what day parts content was watched. Data can additionally be correlated to a demographics engine through Cox’s arrangement with Claritas, yielding more detailed info about prospective consumers who tuned into FreeZone content.
–additional reporting by Kristin Wilcha
