CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Interactive ads with an advocacy pitch are being given a test run in North Carolina this month thanks to a hookup the $150 million Charlotte Metro Credit Union arranged with Time Warner Cable stations.
"We're the first in North Carolina and I haven't heard it tried by credit unions anywhere else," explained Nathan Tothrow, CMCU marketing director describing the innovative cable box pilot in which viewers after seeing a 30-second CMCU ad hit a special remote to view a longer CU commercial touting the "credit union difference."
The seven-minute "difference" documentary reviewing the history of CMCU and stressing distinctions over banks is carried on a CMCU digital channel linked to traditional Time Warner stations. Those stations include Discovery, News14, BET, MTV, VH1 and Oxygen.
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Tothrow said CMCU originally approached Time Warner in July inquiring about e-mail or Internet linkups with their ads and the firm suggested the interactive switch which began Sept. 22 with a group of viewers who had specially equipped boxes with a screen overlay.
So far, CMCU said it is pleased with the results which for September posted a 17% response, meaning of 1,427 spots run on Time Warner stations, 240 viewers remote clicked to the CMCU channel. There were another 400 viewers without the special remote who manually clicked to the longer CMCU ad, said Tothrow.
By the time the pilot is complete at the end of November, Tothrow forecast the response ratio could climb to 20%. The service will then be evaluated by TWC and CMCU for its effectiveness.
He declined to describe the costs with a laugh, "I am not going to tell you our marketing budget."
In the long run, CMCU wants to link up viewers of its ads with a direct e-mail or Web site switch but "that for now is in our dreams."
For its TWC test, CMCU said it has been using its regular 30-second ads featuring former NBA star Muggsy Bogues of the Charlotte Hornets promoting CU services.
Tothrow stressed that the prime goal of the TWC project "is to help increase awareness about credit unions and their value as a banking alternative."
On its own Web site, CMCU has a special explanatory section on the interactive ads guiding viewers with a step-by-step process how to look at CMCU ads.
CMCU told TWC customers they are due "for a special treat this fall, among the very first to test interactive TV advertising from Charlotte Metro featuring former NBA star Muggsy Bogues."
The campaign, said TWC, shows "Bogues hitting baskets as he describes what Metro can do in terms of banking services" adding with a question, "but what else can Metro do?"
The answer is that CUs offer an alternative to banks and there are so many reasons, "you simply can't cover all of that in a 30-second commercial" but a viewer can get more by switching to the documentary.
Another section on the Web site discusses the "advantages of interactive advertising" to viewers.
"At first glance it may appear that all the benefits of interactive advertising will belong to the advertisers themselves," wrote CMCU. "But in reality it is the consumer who ultimately wins in this new medium."
That's because a user gets to choose what additional information they want on a product.
"What a beautiful thing," said the Web site adding that in traditional print and media ads, content is dictated by marketers and the result can be a "deluge of information, some of it useful and some of it not."
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