ITV and BBC team up for interactive push

MediaWeek, Media Week, Monday, 28 February 2005, 5:10pm,

The top ten creative agencies in London will be paid a visit by the BBC and ITV over the coming weeks as part of a joint project to promote interactive advertising.

The initiative, being pushed by ITV Sales with help from BBC Broadcast and interactive digital research group iBurbia, is aimed at pushing so-called Red Button advertising and showing off its creative possibilities.

The presentations by ITV Sales will focus on developing interactive adverts and upping the effectiveness of individual campaigns.

Peter Birch, head of interactive sales at ITV, said, “I am conscious that the real potential of interactivity is, in many cases, still to be realised.

“I suspect this is largely due to interactivity still being viewed by some as being about technology rather than looking at ways this new technology can provide creative solutions”.

Interactive advertising is still to hit the industry with the massive bump that many predicted, with ITV Sales booking just 20 campaigns per month.

But the inclusion of BBC Broadcast – considered by many in the industry to be experts – onto the project will signal a fresh wave of driving the interactive advertising phenomenon.

Christian Ruland, creative director at BBC Broadcast, said: “We aim to create interactive commercials that deliver a deeper and immersive brand experience.

“In many cases the purpose of an interactive ad should go beyond pure data capture and should achieve other tangible results such as message recall.”

By Kevin May

This article was first published on Media Week