Newspaper & Mailroom
PointRoll and Tribune Media Services Announce New ChannelFinder Rich Media Ad Format
Thursday 18. June 2009 - Offering Provides Tune-In Advertisers a Powerful Platform for Delivering Promotional Content Alongside Local Channel Information
PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) and leading provider of rich media advertising, in conjunction with Tribune Media Services, provider of industry-leading TV and movie information, today introduced a new online ad format, ChannelFinder. Developed primarily to meet the needs of television program marketers whose objectives are to drive viewership, ChannelFinder provides a powerful platform for delivering interactive and engaging promotional content and valuable tune-in information directly to Internet users.
The new tool effectively generates interest in the advertiser’s programming by showcasing promotional content such as video clips, interviews, interactive polls or games. These feature-rich ads are further enhanced by localized TV listings data from TMS, which promotes viewership by offering specific channel information based on the user’s location and TV provider along with a call-to-action message.
The combination of rich media and listings functionality in ChannelFinder results in a highly engaging, informative and useful ad vehicle for program promotion. It provides a prime opportunity for tune-in advertisers seeking to drive user interaction with their messaging and to convert Internet users into viewers. PointRoll offers full production and creative services to produce the ads, and robust metrics and reporting to allow marketers to track and optimize the advertisements’ performance with their audience.
Although ChannelFinder has applications for virtually all programming marketers, cable networks and syndicated program producers in particular will benefit from the format. The MLB Network and its partner agency, MediaStorm, were among the first to leverage this new integration. For this campaign, MLB wanted to communicate tune-in information by cable provider to sports fans. MediaStorm assessed the options in the marketplace and decided that ChannelFinder would be the best fit for this campaign for its ability to connect the audience to programming via a simple and engaging platform.
“ChannelFinder allows for real-time and future updates to be delivered right to the consumer,” said Jason Tafler, PointRoll CEO. “The partnership with Tribune Media Services fits perfectly with our commitment to offer our clients and end users the most engaging rich media ads online.”
“The ChannelFinder ad format is a prime example of the creative use of our TV data by an innovative partner,” said Jay Fehnel, Vice President, Entertainment Products for Tribune Media Services. “We’re pleased to be working with PointRoll to present our TV and movie data as part of new, highly engaging advertising formats. This effort is one more way that TMS helps program producers, networks and stations build their audiences.”
The ChannelFinder product, which leverages the unique strengths of both PointRoll and TMS, is available exclusively through the two partners. For a demonstration, click here for a MLB ad, here for a BBC ad or here for a Discovery Channel ad.
PointRoll is the leader in the rich media industry, serving more than 70 billion rich media impressions each year and calling two-thirds of the Fortune 500 its clients.