Lukup, a Bangalore based company run by Headstart founder Kallol Borah has come out with first of it’s kind concept in India- interactive Ads on Television sets! The ads are 100/100 pixel small ads which are shown as hot spot format at bottom right end of Television (as seen in their website demo) and run during the streaming of a program only i.e. they don’t interfere when there is an ad running on TV (to avoid the conflict).
This looks like a brilliant technology and has already garnered the attention of Airtel Digital TV and UTV Bindass. Other great idea of Mr. Borah is to run interactive ads of related products from same company. For instance if there is ICICI ad running on TV, ICICI can also show an interactive ad of same or other product.
The technology behind this is in using the existing Set Top box remotes to perform various functions- for e.g. if user is interested in an ad shown s/he can click on a button in remote to open the ad, can navigate using navigation buttons and can click “OK” button to perform the desired action.
As quoted-
Advertisers will be allowed to schedule and serve the interactive ads based on the time, location, channel and the programme. If an advertiser wants to promote a particular product in Mumbai and not in other cities, he can do that. – Business Standard.
The idea is definitely intriguing as it tries to bring cross-platform opportunity for advertisers who are trying their interactive ads on Mobile via companies like Thmbstrk. This is the best way to compare the performance of ads run on both TV and Mobile platforms and then choosing the one which works.
The main challenge for them as I discussed it with the Business Head of Thmbstrk, Satwick Saxena is in defining a proper “call to action”. For them the limitation is non connectivity of internet (there are only few lakh of IPTVs available till now), so for various companies the problem would be tracing a proper call to action. The other major concern is the ads which are shown during streaming of a program may not garner user attention if the show content is actually engaging.
But not to take away the credit, the potential is definitely there and it’s huge. Challenges are always there with any new technology on board, but can be solved with innovative ideas and continuous efforts. I truly believe in this one-of-its kind technology platform, and believe that it will revolutionize the ad serving platforms.
What do you think?
great way for small business anand.
great way for small business anand.