Riding the Backchannel to Interactivity

Interfluve

Amdocs’ Gelbaum sees it differently. He agrees that advertising dollars are moving to the Internet. The medium can deliver better accountability and addressability today than cable or IPTV providers, after all. But that’s today.

“Just as advertisers didn’t stick with the broadcast carpet bombing form of advertising now that there are more effective forms available, as soon as IPTV is rolled out and there is a critical mass of consumers, advertisers will have no problem reverting back from the Internet to TV,” Gelbaum said.

He added that if service providers can deliver an audience and guarantee delivery to that audience, advertisers will come running.

Carbonari agrees. “Accountability and reporting are keys to monetizing the value chain ... and by necessity, we are out in front there,” he said.

Gelbaum, too, said that accountability in ad delivery will make the difference for IPTV providers. Besides, you can’t look at IPTV as an isolated medium. To do so, he said, does a disservice to advertisers because it doesn’t take into account the manner in which they really want to deliver their messages.

“Advertisers want to target the individual or an audience of individuals. So IPTV should be seen as just one more channel by which they can reach individuals,” Gelbaum said. In a converged world, most IPTV providers also can reach the same individual through other channels, such as their wireless service or broadband Internet. Most ISPs can’t do that.

Gelbaum said we already have seen such multichannel advertising. He pointed to the television program American Idol where AT&T drove viewers to different channels and intertwined television, wireless text messaging and Internet advertising during a single program.

The systems for multichannel, interactive advertising still need further development, but technology alone, much of which already is in place, will not an interactive advertiser make. A new mindset is required. “Telcos need to become media sellers. They have to know how to reach advertisers and understand that it is more than a technology play. They need to get the right people in place with the right DNA to be able to talk to the Madison Avenue folks,” Gelbaum said.