ITV to breathe new life into red-button

by Emma Barnett, Media Week 23-Oct-07, 10:25

LONDON - ITV has tried to resuscitate interest in interactive advertising by promising to produce a guide to help TV buyers sell the concept to potential advertisers.

Gary Knight, ITV’s brand partnerships director, assured the TV buying community at a session held last week, entitled “Active Advertising”, that ITV will produce more hard facts within the next two weeks to reinvigorate interest in the potential of red-button advertising.

Rhys McLachlan, head of TV implementation at MediaCom, who spoke in favour of red-button’s impact at the event, said: “Advertisers have gone off interactive because it’s seen as expensive and there are other newer options that seem more attractive – such as online video.”

Simon Prindiville, a broadcast account director at Universal McCann, attended the event and said: “Red-button definitely has a future and for certain clients it will work better than for others.

“It’s all down to the content of the ad. It would have been better if ITV could have got more TV planners there, as they have more direct contact with the clients.

“ITV will now have to invest in some more case studies so it can demonstrate that in a fragmenting marketplace, TV and interactive still play strong roles in the marketing mix.”