TORONTO – Shaw Media announced today it has added additional capabilities for Global TV’s video app that will provide advertisers with more data about how Global TV viewers interact with the content they watch on their smartphones and tablets.
First launched in 2011, Global TV’s video app for iPad and iPhone has been enhanced with what the company calls “tap-through technology” that provides smartphone and tablet viewers with the ability to drill deeper to learn more about the products and brands that are being advertised. All Global TV programs currently viewable on tablets and smartphones will have the technology embedded within the content.
For advertisers, the new tap-through enhancement adds an identifiable call-to-action within video ads delivered to the Global app, providing advertisers with parity of cost, user experience and click-through metrics across video screens.
In theory, advertisers and brands using the app could, “post-campaign, extract a massive amount of data on a user’s location, on time of day, on the various programs,” says Paul Burns, Global’s vice-president, digital media. A user could “book a trip, fill out a form, enter a contest, you name it, those insights are able to get captured and overlaid against the various programs that exist within the app.”
“We’re able to glean a bit of intelligence on the audience,” says Burns. “One could also suggest that you could apply that intelligence to the broader TV media buy as well.”
“With the addition of Global’s tap-through technology, we can now track consumer behaviour and create a more engaging consumer platform at the same time,” said Eleni Frangakis-Pappas, manager, digital strategy for J3 Canada, in a release. “I’m an advocate of multi-screen consolidation because it delivers excellent efficiencies and increases digital spends. Instead of being a dead-end, we’ll be able to guide them to additional opportunities such as promotions, incentives, contests and more. This will definitely accelerate the development of mobile websites, which were held back by the lack of tracking capabilities.”
Burns says Global isn’t ready to disclose targets for user engagement and revenue from the tap-through technology. “We’re kind of in the first inning of a baseball game here with mobile video. I think it’s pretty early to throw out numbers. What I can say is that receptivity from the ad community has been over the top. We’ve had buyers lined up to take part in this tap-through technology.”
“The mandate here for us is to try and dramatically improve the user experience for both the advertiser and the content itself, which we’ve done in this release,” adds Burns.
He describes the tap-through technology as a litmus test for being able to deliver this interactive technology to the larger TV experience, which Burns says is still at least five or six years away from being viable.
“What we’ve introduced here is really the tip of the iceberg of what could be possible when you look at it across all screens. That’s the North Star for us, to be candid. We are living in a multi-screen world, and parity in experience, parity for an advertiser and parity for consumers, is really the desired end state. That’s really what we’re shooting for.”
The newly enhanced Global Video App is available for free at www.globaltv.com/apps or at the iTunes App Store at http://bit.ly/YCfbuE, and is intended for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices running iOS 5.X or newer.
