Advertising Agencies and The New Interactive TV Commercial

Advertising Agencies and The New Interactive TV Commercial: why not use your website using Voice and Video?


Several years ago in an interview with Peter Jennings (Jennings now deceased) on ABC World News Tonight with Bill Gates the world changed forever:

JENNINGS: Can you tell me two things that you have changed your mind about in the last year about -- in the last year, about technology?

GATES: Well let’s see. There are some things that we are always thinking about. For example, when will speech recognition be good enough for everybody to use that? And what we have made a lot more progress this year on that. I think we will surprise people a bit on how well we will do on speech recognition. Also the idea of how the phone and the PC are coming together. Where you will be able to see the calls that you missed, or even when your phone rings see immediately who that is, that’s calling, or control how that is forwarded, or even set it up so that the screen is part of your interaction. We are seeing that as increasingly important and we are putting a lot of research into that.

The future is here today. As witness by Bill Gates statement. Speech Recognition will allow Advertising Agencies to do what they do best, make TV Commercials for the Internet that respond to the target consumer. No longer will Commercials be passive, but now with new technology they will be interactive. That, combined with Broadband, and even the smallest PC can become a giant, even a small hand-held cell phone will be able to access huge software files and provide accessing unlimited processor power, and unlimited memory for storage – all without keyboard entry, but instead all with voice. A cell phone or PC pointed at the family Plasma Television make them powerful new tools for Advertisers and for Advertising Agencies. Cell phone will be the computers of the future, and the family plasma TV its monitor – able to access the internet, telephone service, and entertainment, all with the use of the smallest cell phone. Interactive TV Commercials are now possible too. Voice activated, these new commercials anticipate target consumer responses. With Voice Recognition, the TV commercial asks the consumer questions, and then based upon the consumer response, the TV Commercial answers with the correct selling message. It is the future of advertising, Voice Recognition Interactive Commercials. Two-way conversations with the target consumer. Voice Recognition will end to passive viewer forever. Voice will replace the hand-held tuner, and Voice will allow everyone to operate a computer. Telecommunications that access the computer will make them powerful tools and an integral part of the new communication system. By giving the small hand-held cell phone access to powerful software via the Internet and your home PC, you will always have access to telecommunications, Internet, entertainment, and your own personal files. Input is now verbal. Using your cell phone you tell your computer what you want to do. You can do virtually anything anywhere with voice. The confines of walls for accessing information or entertainment are gone forever. The era of voice has begun, and truly it will change the world forever, because now, the entire world can access and use the Internet – all because of voice and advanced technology.

So what happened?

Why didn’t Advertisers and Advertising Agencies begin to utilize voice on Websites? Talking head command attention, and a talking head that leads someone who is surfing the web to stick, seems like the ideal way to attract and keep viewers/users.

What are the opportunities for Websites: first, to engage viewers; and second, to utilize both voice and video together to animate the static website to make it dynamic.

Voice Recognition and Broadband will cause a blur between Television and the Internet, and blur Telecommunications as well. The three will merge to become a powerful new way advertisers can communicate with consumers. Consumers plugged-in to Internet with Broadband will be able to access larger and larger servers that when coupled with Voice Recognition will make the computer of the Star Ship Enterprise a reality in every home in the world. Voice is the missing ingredient to make computer use as global as television. The PC may well be replaced by your cell phone because with voice and broadband, nothing else is required. The huge memories and power needed for most software programs will be in huge servers that your small hand-held device accesses.

Many now talk of ‘three screen technology,’ big TV screen, medium Computer screen and small Cellphone screens.

With Telecommunications, the small hand-held phone can access the personal computer, and entertainment programs too. Anytime, anywhere, you will be able to communicate with your computer or your personalized files held on a server. When not in front of a huge Plasma Screen we will have a small one, our plasma cell phone, and be connected to it, on our person at all times. Now we can talk with anyone, access information, and entertain ourselves anywhere, and at any given time. It is Dick Tracy and the Star Ship enterprise combined. Computer, do you hear me?

For Advertisers and Advertising Agencies, the task is simple. Begin planning for the future today. Combining the Internet with Television, with Telecommunications is an advertising opportunity that will change advertising in the same way that television changed advertising upon its introduction. Imagine walking into your dark home after work and your computer welcomes you home. Asks about your day and what you would like to do tonight. First, dinner. The menu pops up of all of your favorite dinner spots and after you tell your computer what you want to eat, it orders it for you automatically with food at your door in minutes. Then, program the entertainment for the evening, what programs you want to watch, and then of course some homework from the office for an hour or so. You may want to take telephone calls or not. Or program to tell your computer to allow calls but tape the program so you won’t miss a moment of your favorite television show or movie – or pause the action of your interactive computer game to take the call, and then resume after you end the call. This new interactive telecommunications, Internet, entertainment center is the new turf for advertising.

Voice recognition will change computers from data storage input devices into personal assistants who can really pay your bills, take and make messages, get your dinner or lunch, make your appointments, organize your day -- life and life’s work. Voice is a bigger breakthrough in technology then television. It will truly change the world. And we in advertising have to begin preparing now.

The Television Commercial of the future is voice interactive. The opening segment asks for a response. With the voice-activated response, the commercial tailors its response to that particular target consumer’s inquiry, enhancing the selling process, increasing the effectiveness of all commercials. The future is here now with Bill Gates’ statement. We in advertising won’t be surprised, just surprised it took so long. We have long lamented the difficulties inherent with new media, but with voice, now the Internet is open for business with the entire world. And we in advertising will create the marketing tools that utilize the combined power and effectiveness of the new Voice Recognition Internet, Television, and Telecommunication System. With Voice we can truly orchestrate Integrated Brand Promotion utilizing Advertising, Promotion and Public Relations all through one media source, the new Voice Recognition Computer that combines it all. And ties it all together for more powerful marketing: Computer based, Voice Recognition entertainment, personal assistant, telecommunications with pictures – message capture, forwarding and work station – all in one system that combines both work and home life.

Television is watched throughout the entire world, perhaps throughout the universe. The Internet’s limitation has always been literacy. Voice Recognition gives accessibility to the entire world. Broadband allows a single cable to carry the internet, television and telecommunication to our home, and for them to interact together. As software programs become larger and larger, broadband access will allow smaller and smaller devices to access huge servers that will power the smallest device enabling everyone to utilize a new combined media comprised of the internet, television, and telecommunications. This new advance will truly make globalization a reality and change forever the way we live, and the way we advertisers promote goods and services to the world. The world with one voice will never be the same.

Marketers, Advertisers, and Advertising Agencies need to begin utilizing Voice and Video on websites to increase content from static text and pictures, to interactive sites that use Video Content to entice viewers and Voice to reinforce and direct viewers.

Website voice and video are being underutilized and present an enormous opportunity for Marketers to add relevant content to enhance their websites and marketing potential.

The Flash Websites used by the Motion Picture Industry are almost state of the art. They employ video, sound, occasionally voice, to attract consumers/viewers and to entice them into their content, then motivate them to want to see the featured movie. Isn’t that exactly what Marketers want to do? Go to: http://www.goldenglobes.org/
And find the movie links and see for yourself.

The same methodology and techniques used to promote movies can easily be used for products and services. Websites with Voice and Video content are more dynamic and engaging than static text and picture sites.

Marketers, Advertisers, Advertising Agencies should be using Voice and Video as content and as a way to engage consumers/viewers while providing promotional and entertainment content that promotes the brand.

©2009 Daryl Orris: Advertising 101. All Rights Reserved.