I hate to crow. Well, no I don’t. When a monthly beats the NYT to a story, it’s kind of fun. Anyway, the Times picks up on the web/TV advertising meme, which I wrote about a few months ago in 2.0.
Utilizing Unicast technology, a slew of sites, including MSN, ESPN, Lycos and others, will run ads from Pepsi, AT&T, Honda, and several others. This is real marketing. More than 100 million ads will be run in the six week test, with an estimated reach of 50-75 million folks. For those of you who don’t read 2.0…here’s the last line of my column (edited a bit for clarity):
“There are any number of problems with selling television advertising on the Web, of course. Will Web surfers accept it? Will they hit the fast-forward button (or will they be able to)? Will advertisers see the Web as a valuable medium? Can they even buy it in a way that makes sense to them — using the same reach and frequency metrics they apply to buying television and print? Can they let go of their decades-long dependence on the up-front and learn to love the Web?
I’d bet that the answer to all these questions is yes. But don’t take my word for it. … we’re going to find out sooner than most people think.”
I’d be very interested in reader’s reactions to these commercials, should you come across them.