Will interactive advertising through the cable box become reality; at some point, yes. But will Canoe be the one to pull it off; well, let's just say that they are yet to meet a deadline. "Canoe earlier this summer abandoned plans for a targeted-ad service, which was to let advertisers run different spots in a national campaign by overlaying them on existing local cable ad zones." That essentially was meant to enable more ads to traffic inside a :30 second spot. Targeted to the household, each unique spot could be run inside one ad break, essentially quadrupling the number of ad positions to sell. Advertisers would pay the premium to get ads targeting their best customers, by household. Canoe failed to bring that opportunity to market.
"Instead, CEO David Verklin said in June, Canoe would turn its focus to launching the interactive RFI product in the fourth quarter." That means the opportunity for a consumer watching the ad to push a button on the remote and get more info on the ad; that could be a free sample, promotional information, a specific video, and perhaps even the chance to order a product. But now even that is delayed till Spring 2010. And while Canoe failed to hit the deadline, Cablevision has proven that an interactive model can be deployed. "Cablevision, independent of Canoe, this fall launched Optimum Select, an interactive advertising service that runs on the MSO's proprietary ITV platform." Can Canoe catch up or will they in fact latch on to Cablevision. For Canoe, the future remains cloudy.
