General Mills brand Pillsbury has tied with Cablevision's
Rainbow Media unit to establish its own a video on demand channel, according to
a statement from Rainbow, Feb. 21. Pillsbury's media agency, Zenith Media,
negotiated a deal to use Rainbow's advanced and interactive TV applications.
Rainbow Media offers such services as part of national ad sales packages at
sister channels, AMC and WE
TV. Marketers such as Benjamin Moore and department store Century 21 have
also used the advanced tools for such things as coupons and trial products.
The VOD channel provides viewers with interactive
features along with long-form VOD content
plus text and photos. Pillsbury is the latest marketer to try and make its
marketing messages more informational and to create a more programming-like
environment to discuss its products. Kraft also has an initiative to get
viewers to its own Website for cooking advice. General Motors Co. was one of
the first marketers in the video on demand space, teaming with Comcast, to
give consumers more information on its products via a VOD
service.
The move is also interesting in the light of Cablevision's recent carriage
renewal disagreement with Scripps Networks Interactive which yanked Food
Network and HGTV from the New York
area system. The two agreed to terms in January although Cablevision's interest
in ramping up food category programming on it's the video on demand platform
could be viewed as competition to content providers such as Scripps.
Barry Frey, executive VP of advanced platform sales, for Cablevision said:
"This is fully branded Pillsbury, soup to nuts. Unlike the Web, they
control the environment the whole time."
The deal was born out of negotiations with Zenith which began during the
upfront 2009. Cablevision continues to talk to agencies about their offerings
for the 2010 upfront. "This gives our clients a significant opportunity to
take part of advanced advertising learnings and metrics," added Frey.
