Turner Broadcasting has announced the first advertising takers for its TVinContext system, which matches products with related scenes in the movies they will shown on TNT and TBS. It's a pretty high-class bunch -- OnStar, DirecTV, Cadillac, and Victoria’s Secret.
TVinContext delivers ads related to what just happened on screen, which puts a spin on traditional product placement and automates a task that ad agencies perform often to achieve the reverse result -- to not associate a product with something distasteful that just happened in the program.
The theory behind TVinContext is that viewers are more likely to actually watch and then remember relevant content. It's yet another another counter-attack on the TiVo generation and their propensity to habitually avoid the content that supports -- in its entirety -- the medium they otherwise adore.
The program was announced in May, but Turner only today revealed its first partners, and the first TVinContext ads will run on October 25 during the "The Bourne
Supremacy." After a car chase and crash scene, the network will insert a spot for OnStar's automatic crash response service.
No word yet on what scenes will prime viewers in the mood for Victoria's Secret ads, but it shouldn't be too hard to guess. Actually, it's hard to imagine the male 25-44 demographic fast-forwarding (or forgetting) any Victoria's Secret ad, so this might just be a case of gilding the lilly.
