p2pnet news view | Advertising:- Soon, advertisers will be lurking in your living room, secretly peering over your shoulder so they can see where you’re going and what you do when you get there.

Comcast is trying to figure out how to keep track of viewing statistics from 16 million households across America and, “Charter is already tracking several hundred thousand boxes in its Los Angeles, while the Canoe venture is looking to eventually track viewing metrics for 32 million households so it can deliver Interactive TV and targeted ads,” continues Engadget.

David Verklin (right),  “who formerly headed the Aegis Group and is one of the advertising industry’s most outspoken figures, will be the CEO of Canoe Ventures,” said the Wall Street Journal.

Here’s how Investors.com describes it »»»

Cable TV companies aim to steer more ad revenue their way, bucking the flow of dollars to the Web.

And they hope to do this by taking a page from the Internet – targeting ads to the most receptive audience and tracking response.

That’s the tall order for Canoe Ventures, a company formed in June by the nation’s six biggest cable TV firms: Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (TWC), Cablevision Systems (CVC), Charter Communications (CHTR), Cox Communications and Bright House Networks.

Advertisers have upped their spending on the Internet, where they can target individuals based on what Web sites they visit and what searches they conduct.

They can?

Cripes! How do they manage that ?! Is that true ?! And if it is, wouldn’t that be a serious invasion of your personal privacy?

Surely the likes of Google and Microsoft and Yahoo, and so on, aren’t playing fast and loose with user data?

“Canoe’s goal is to develop a system to make cable networks more competitive with online advertising,” says the post, going on »»»

Canoe says TV programmers and marketers will be able to place ads that target TV viewers based on what they watch, where they’re located and more.

It’s like, “Come on, the cable industry has been talking about this mythical ship for years and it’s never come to port,” according to Verklin in the Investors story.

“But the stars, the moon and the sun have aligned to give Canoe a real chance to turn a mythical idea – interactive advertising nationally -  into a reality.”

Interactive advertising? Yup.

The story continues »»»

Early this year, Canoe plans to roll out its first product. It will let advertisers target neighborhoods or demographic “zones” by income or other census data. Within a few years, Canoe says advertisers will be able to target TV ads by individual households.

So, for example, only households that own dogs would receive dog food commercials.

Verklin says advertisers are looking for ways to quickly measure the effectiveness of ads. On the Internet, they track clicks and pay per click. He says cable also can provide effective feedback.

“Canoe will create a new currency in TV advertising from digital set-top box data,” Verklin said.

“We’ll be able to put an audience number on every commercial on TV.” 

And you thought TV advertising interspersed with the occasional programme was the ultimate bad.

Stay tuned.

Engadget – Comcast building a 500TB TV Warehouse to keep viewer data, January 12, 2009
Wall Street Journal – Cable Group to Unveil Targeted-Ad Plan, June 10, 2008
Investors.com – Cable TV Companies Use Canoe To Launch Internet-Like Ad Plan, January 9, 2009

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 10:57 am and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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