Interactive TV Ads Push Cablevision Conversion Rates Up

It isn’t often that companies send out press releases that follow up with the actual results of their ad sales efforts. But Tuesday, Jan. 11, Cablevision Systems Corp. released data showing that interactive TV ads help push up conversion rates for leads by as much as 70%.

The news is significant because of the great hopes both marketers and sales executives have for advanced advertising and its power to transform the purchasing process. The preliminary results also suggest that media companies may also have some ability to sell products beyond movies and TV shows across their platforms.

Cablevision’s advertisers: Gillette, Benjamin Moore, retailer Century 21, Halls and Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive used the cable operator’s Optimum Select product to provide viewers with samples and promotional materials back in the fall. According to a Cablevision statement today, those advertisers found some particularly effective results with campaigns running for half the period expected, because of the positive results.

Cablevision defined the conversion rate as viewers who pressed a select button on the remote control twice; the first time to receive details from an advertiser, the second time to receive a product or service described on screen. The conversion rate was 40%, but was 70% for consumers seeing Colgate-Palmolive’s latest marketing campaign.