What’s This?
Open up The New York Times on your iPad this Sunday, and you’ll catch a glimpse – or more likely, several – of the first ad takeover on the app.
To promote its latest summer series, Ray Donovan , the Showtime network has purchased every single ad slot in the Times ‘iPad app for a single day. Ads come in the form of videos, appearing interstitially and in expandable banner units alongside article and section pages.
Each video – there are 26 unique versions in all – is set to play automatically. That may sound invasive, and some will no doubt find it so, but at least there’s no sound unless you turn it on. Tap on a video and Information “hotspots” will appear, inviting you to learn more about the series and its characters. At the end of each video you can download the season premiere episode, for free. You’ll also be prompted to download the trailer song from iTunes and install Showtime’s iPad app.
You can see the takeover in action in the demo below:
The campaign took several months to execute, Todd Haskell, the Times ‘group vice president of advertising, said in a phone interview with Mashable Wednesday. Discussions began with a visit from media buying agency OMD to the Times ‘Idea Lab in January. Medialets, in collaboration with Showtime, developed the creative.
Haskell says the auto play feature is a bit of an experiment – one he’s hoping readers won’t mind. “Historically, whenever we do something somewhat outside the box … [like] the Mac vs. PC ads (shown below) … readers love it. We’re confident readers will find this beautiful and well done.”
I asked Haskell why a takeover of the Times ‘iPad app might be more appealing to advertisers than a takeover of the front page of nytimes.com. “We know the way people engage with tablets is very different from the web,” Haskell says. “Readers [watch] more videos, spend more time per session, go deeper … [particularly] over the weekend because they have time to immerse themselves in content. [In this instance] readers can really have that pervasive experience, [they'll ] be continuously reminded about this wonderful show. “
The ads could reach as many as a few hundred thousand people: The Times ‘iOS apps have been downloaded 8.3 million times to date, reaching 1.3 million people per month, a spokesperson for the organization said .
Front-page thumbnail courtesy of iStockphoto, hocus-pocus
Topics: Advertising, Business, ipad app, Marketing, Media, mobile advertising, The New York Times, ray donovan, Showtime, Television
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