What Is Interactive TV Advertising?

Interactive TV advertising is a marketing technique in which commercials are shown with a message asking viewers to push a button if they want more information on the product or service being advertised. This advertising attempts to emulate the interactivity of online marketing to make TV commercials more successful. Interactive TV advertising also seeks to change what commercials are displayed to a viewer, to target that consumer’s interests. Along with drawing in the viewer, interactive advertising gives advertisers a better metric to use in measuring commercial response, because regular commercials just give advertisers an indication of how many people saw the commercial, not how many responded to it.

The difference between a regular commercial and an interactive commercial is rather clear. In interactive TV advertising, there will be a message, usually at the top or bottom of the TV screen, which will ask the viewer to push a button on the TV controller. This message will typically say that hitting a button will reward the responders with more information, coupons or other benefits. After selecting the button, the viewer will be brought to a new screen that may show a coupon code, an interactive TV game, surveys or a digital brochure.

Interactive TV advertising attempts to emulate interactive online advertising, a strategy that has been shown to be very effective. Both methods engage the viewer and allow him or her to see something fun or informative. By doing this, viewers are more likely to buy a product or trust the business, because they are doing more than just showing a 30-second clip between shows. This also gives the business more selling points, because they can educate or entertain the customer better with an interactive commercial than with a regular one.

Another reason interactive TV advertising is used is because it allows advertisers to know exactly what that viewer wants to see. For example, if the viewer clicked to see more information about several food and kitchenware commercials, then advertisers know that viewer is interested in culinary products. Interactive advertising seeks not only to draw in the audience but also to find out what the viewer wants, so only targeted commercials will be shown to that viewer.

When an advertiser uses a regular commercial, he or she will only know how many people viewed the commercial, not how many emotionally responded to it. With interactive TV advertising, the advertiser will know exactly how many people responded. This is a better success metric, because responses have a higher chance of turning into sales.