What’s the latest format for broadband movie advertising? A streaming video ad that doesn’t just play movie clips, but the times the movies are playing at your local theaters. “It’s never been done before, we’re dynamically serving movie times,” said Chris Young, founder of Klipmart and EVP Rich Media for DoubleClick, which acquired Klipmart in June.
Klipmart worked with Trapeze Media, a Toronto-based interactive agency, to develop the unit, which is being used exclusively for Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, which includes Walt Disney, Touchstone and other studios.
Trapeze created an application for Buena Vista called “first inline online!,” an advanced ticketing application that generates data from the three major movie data providers — MovieTickets.com, Fandango.com and Moviefone.com. Trapeze launched it in 2004 and it has been used on a variety of Buena Vista Web sites, but this is the first time it’s been used with a rich media ad. “It’s the next logical extension of the information,” said Rob Balfour, Trapeze’s CEO.
The unit was launched on a pilot basis for The Prestige on October 20 and rolled out for Deja Vu on November 22, with ads on MSN, Yahoo, AOL and other portals. “The unit will be used across all Disney campaigns in the future,” Balfour said.
Trapeze worked with Klipmart to develop the unit, which can now be used by other agencies. “It’s easy for agencies to reskin it,” Balfour said. “Agencies can provide the graphics for the unit using the basic design.”
The in-banner ads show movie clips in the center of the unit with the words “Now Playing” at the bottom, which run above a streaming strip of theater names and movie times.
The movie information is provided to users based on their Internet protocol address. “We analyze what geography it’s in and display the relevant show time information,” Young said.
The information comes from the three main movie data providers. “If consumers want to find a show time they might have to go to all three sites, because every theater has an exclusive agreement with a different site,” Young said. “We pull the data from all three sites to give a universal solution.”
“No broadband advertiser has ever provided information this way before.” Young said. Automobile makers could use the format to send information about local dealers, but it hasn’t been done yet, he said.
The unit was created at DoubleClick’s Innovation Lab, which the company created after it acquired Klipmart. “We agreed to work with clients to come up with compelling innovations. Disney said this is something we wanted to do and we worked with Trapeze to come up with the solution. It’s the perfect example of how we’ve leveraged the Innovation Lab idea,” Young said.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More