Direct response television company AMNTV this week became possibly the first production company to supply Webcasters with commercials specially developed for the Internet.
“The ad model for the Internet is overwhelmingly direct response,” said Joseph Gray, CEO of AMNTV, Murrieta, CA. “Whether clicking a banner or a straight link, it's the same principle as calling a phone number. We've been doing direct response for years. Replacing the phone number with a click-through is a natural progression.”
Replacing the phone number in the ads is a large “Click to Order” logo accompanied by a voiceover telling viewers to click and a graphic of a pointer clicking on the logo. The Webcasters can set the spot to open a new browser window or change the page on the current one when the potential customer clicks through.
The first commercials offered will be for several of AMNTV's direct response products, including the Bow Flex exercise machine, Reader's Digest subscriptions, Nautilus Sleep Systems and the “A Time for Love” music collection.
Many other Webcasting solutions companies and software programs allow for click-through commercial inserts, but AMNTV claims it is the first production company to take advantage of this tool and specifically design spots with e-commerce applications to be inserted into Webcasts with these systems.
“More and more people are using Webcasting to bring people to their sites, but there really is a complete lack of ad content specifically for Webcasters,” said Joseph Gray. “We are the first company providing the ads, ready to be dropped into a video stream. All we do is send the Webcasters a tape and HTML code for accounting and the specific product link.”
AMNTV is carrying over the per-inquiry model it uses for DRTV to the Internet with these new spots. Under this model, broadcasters provide AMNTV free air time in return for a share of the revenue earned.
All of AMNTV's click-through ads take viewers to 800webmall.com to purchase products, get information or receive up-sell offers. The 800webmall is an Internet revenue-sharing model, which provides that any Webcaster who uses the spots will split revenues with AMNTV — regardless if a viewer purchases the product advertised in the commercial they clicked on or any of the other 100 plus products sold at the 800webmall site.
AMNTV has shipped the spots to several Webcasters, including Weatherama.com, OnlineTV.com, television station WOKR's site and Webcasting ad-insertion and content provider Applied Digital Technologies Inc. The company also is in preliminary discussions with major ad networks to offer the spots to their clients.
AMNTV is pitching the spots to the more than 40 television stations that are using the 800webmall platform on their sites if they stream their news and content. The spots would become a new revenue source for the stations since they often do not profit when they rebroadcast television commercials on the Internet.
“These spots make perfect sense, and I am surprised no one has done it up to this point,” said Bruno Lucarelli, vice president of business development for Weatherama.com. “Webcasting is the hottest thing on the Internet, and we need to have more people like Joe taking steps to show how we can all profit from it. Per inquiry is a stronger and more profitable e-commerce model than most others. This is a business model that has worked for thirty years on television; those who say it's a different ballgame are wrong. It is all media.”
