ITV starts agency tour to attract online ads

LONDON - ITV is embarking on a major push to persuade media agencies to advertise on its recently launched website, ITV.com, amid industry criticism of its rates, which some buyers believe are too high for an entrant into the digital space.

The broadcaster begins a two-week tour of the major agencies this week with details of ITV.com, to coincide with the site's completion on 31 July.
However, one agency broadcast director told Media Week: "The online prices are ridiculously high... ITV is a little bit naive at the moment and doesn't seem to have grasped the commercial realities yet."
Another agency's head of broadcast said: "ITV.com is not a significant media offering right now. It will take time for it to get to where it needs. Its charging is out of kilter with everyone else."
The theme of the digital roadshow is "Connecting Customers with Connected Content across Connected Platforms" and will be headed by ITV brand partnership director Gary Knight. He will present ITV's plans to extend its content and advertising franchises across the next generation of platforms.
Knight will also talk agencies through ITV's entire digital portfolio, which includes ITV Local (due to be rolled out in all regions by the end of this year), ITV Interactive, ITV Mobile and ITV Play.
ITV plans to use behavioural targeting tools to build interest-based portfolios of its users so that it can target them in a "more robust way".
Asked why the roadshow was happening now, Knight said: "We did a pre-launch tour of the agencies in May, and now the site is finishing on 31 July, it is only courtesy we see our top 100 customers. It is what you do before any launch."
The digital roadshow will restart in the autumn in time for the trading season.
Knight confirmed that the digital sales team is currently expanding but would not reveal by how much, only saying: "We do need specialists to sell the space."
He also said there are some more large sponsorship opportunities on the horizon for ITV programmes, following the £20m two-year deal done by the furniture retailer Harveys for Coronation Street.
ITV.com launched in early May 2007 and was the first major UK broadcaster to run TV commercials during live streaming of its channels on the web and mobile.

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