Backchannelmedia Inc. is getting closer to marketing’s Holy Grail, in which a TV viewer can click a remote control and purchase the item shown on the screen.
The Boston-based company said it has demonstrated “the first televised click-through where a viewer can interact through a standard TV remote control with a television advertisement and automatically, securely and seamlessly pass the viewer product or content interest into an e-commerce site hosted outside the television platform and linked to the viewer’s personal home page web site (‘the Internet back-end’).”
The company will begin trials of the technology, which has been under development for 10 years in anticipation of the 2009 digital conversion, with at least one major market affiliate during the second quarter of 2008.
With Backchannelmedia’s patented technology, a viewer watching a live TV show or a recorded show from a DVR—without interrupting the viewing experience—will be able to click and transfer information in ads or programming directly to his or her personal Web home page. Products can then be ordered securely through the viewer’s existing favorite Web sites in a familiar and safe environment, and content can be downloaded, purchased, bookmarked and/or viewed on the Web with the click of the remote.
For example, a viewer could see a popular recording artist perform on television and then either bookmark the CD in Amazon.com or immediately download the song from a digital music site.
“Our solution solves the riddle of getting consumers content where and when they want it,” said Dan Hassan, Co-CEO of Backchannelmedia. “Backchannelmedia will become the definition of advertiser engagement, as moving consumer interest from TV directly to the linked Internet back-end satisfies Madison Avenue’s desire to deliver integrated marketing messages tailored for the consumer. In addition, broadcasters and advertisers will be able work together to determine the appropriate TV click through rates free from today’s limiting online text link auction environment.”
Demonstrations of the system are now being conducted at Backchannelmedia’s Boston-office and engineering facility by invitation only. The company is currently building several “broadcast and cable head-end in a box” transportable demonstration devices and expects to be hosting week-long educational meetings at conference centers in New York and Los Angeles sometime during the third quarter of 2008.
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