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London (pte035/10.03.2005/14:30) - Car manufacturer Ford http://www.ford.com has announced that it will give away a free car as part of a one-off advertising competition on British broadcaster ITV this Easter in a novel way to get viewers to watch commercial breaks. As the Media Guardian http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk reports, the third biggest advertiser in Britain, Ford, has teamed up with ITV for a live advertising competition, dubbed "advertainment", which both claim is a world first. According to the network, car maker and its media agency MindShare, they are on to a winner as the competition will increase viewer interest in the adverts and give the car concrete data about who is watching its advertising.
"We have got a responsibility to work with advertisers and their agencies to find new and engaging ways to reward viewers for watching television commercials," said Justin Sampson, ITV's customer relationship manager. "There's a lot of thought in the advertising industry that we are moving towards an age in advertising where engagement is as, if not more, important than interruption," he said.
On Good Friday the network will broadcast a 30-second advertisement for the Ford Focus at the start of an advertising break in the evening, and will follow it with another asking them a question about the commercial. Viewers can enter the prize draw by telephone, texting or going online. Later that evening, viewers will see another advert followed by a 10-second billboard with a graphic announcing the winner. The adverts will be repeated each night and the overall winner will be announced on Easter Monday with another specially created commercial. The deal was negotiated by Simon Orpin at ITV Sales and Paul Whelan at MindShare.
"This ground-breaking competition targets large family audiences over the Easter Holiday period in a unique and engaging way while guiding viewers from one ad to the next," said Whelan. "Ford has chosen prime time on ITV and the response mechanism will ensure that valuable data is captured." As the Media Guardian reports, ITV will use exclusive graphic overlay technology to enhance adverts with live information close to the point of transmission.
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