Wrigley is among the first advertisers to use the Canoe Ventures interactive TV capabilities, in a promotion that has run on Comcast’s Style network offering a free pack of Orbit gum to digital cable subscribers, a source familiar with the project confirmed (see Canoe Launches Clickable 30-Second Ads With Comcast, TWC).
The gum maker’s “request for information” spots began running last Sunday, June 20, on Style. The RFIs would have popped up as graphical overlays only during a 30-second spot for Orbit, giving viewers the option to click a button on their remote controls and then opt-in to receive a promotional product sample.
Canoe has declined to identify its initial clients or to discuss specifics of the first RFI spots, except to say they were viewable in “millions” of Comcast and Time Warner Cable households with set-tops that have been upgraded to support the CableLabs EBIF specification. Canoe chief marketing officer Vicki Lins also said last week that the company has executed more than one RFI campaign.
Similarly the joint venture has kept pricing of its services secret, while noting that it is up to programming partners — e.g., Style — to determine the nature of deals with advertisers. Canoe has said it’s working with four initial programmers: Comcast Networks, Discovery, NBC Universal and Cablevision’s Rainbow Holdings (see First Clicks for Canoe Ads).
Canoe is owned by Comcast, TWC, Cox, Cablevision, Charter and Bright House. Wrigley is a subsidiary of Mars Inc., which bought the gum-maker in a $23 billion deal in 2008.
