could earn fees from rivals...the australia..r

Ten could earn ad fees from rivals
Simon Canning, Marketing writer
June 18, 2007

THE Ten Network could earn revenue from advertisements run on rival networks with an innovation allowing advertisers to link specific ads to direct-response mobile and text numbers.
Ten hopes to have up to a dozen major brands using the system when it goes live next month.

The deal, which is being done through Ten's long-time Big Brother and Australian Idol partner, Legion Interactive (which last week merged with ad agency See to become Belong), could also see Ten earning revenue from ads run on rival networks when consumers respond to them.

Ten has licensed from Legion the system which enables advertisers to prompt people to send text messages to dedicated phone numbers to get a response. A similar system run by European-based TXT4 launched in Australia earlier this year and has been trialled with a handful of clients.

However, the Ten system is the first launched by a specific network for its advertising clients.

Peter Birch, Ten's head of digital sales, said he had been working with a similar system in Britain for the past five years.

"This will allow advertisers' spots and sponsorships to be fully interactive," Mr Birch said.

"At the time I left the UK (six months ago) we were probably running in excess of 30 mobile campaigns a month. I have got probably seven clients signed up at the moment, but I have not got the insertion orders signed."

He believed consumers were now willing to seek more information by using text messages, and a response was more likely than using a TV commercial to prompt someone to log on to the internet because many viewers now watched TV with mobile phones within easy reach. While Mr Birch declined to put a price on the cost of such interactive campaigns, he believed advertisers would fund them through shifting budgets from other media, rather than increasing their budgets.

"What we are doing here is we are giving the advertiser the opportunity to exploit what we do as a broadcaster. We are letting them say if you want to get a brochure (or) want to find out more, you can without getting up from the telly."

Mr Birch said he believed texting and mobile phones had reached acceptance levels that allowed them to be considered a mainstream form of marketing.

"My father sent me a text the other day, and trust me when I say when John Birch embraces a new medium you know it has hit mainstream and is no longer niche. We are saying to advertisers you are foolish if you don't dip your toe into this area and see what mobile can do for you."

The system devised by Belong allows consumers to respond to ads by sending a text for the cost of a local call, but advertisers will also be able to underwrite the call cost if they so choose.

Ten earns a percentage of each response as a part of the package, meaning advertisers could conceivably run the Ten ads on other networks while at the same time driving revenue to Ten.