"Gettieng Paid to watch TV? Sort of" - Karin M. Riefkohl
A few airlines have found a way to break through the clutter of online advertisers and having their frequent flyers actively choose to watch commercials (which, since TiVo and other such devices, commercial viewership has gone down).
This article from brandweek.com, "Getting Paid to Watch TV? Sort of," discusses how certain airlines will 'pay' frequent flyers 20 to 30 frequent flyer miles per minute of commercials they watch and, additionally, they will give a 250frequent flyer miles bonus just for signing up for this service. I thought this technic was pretty interesting and thought to share it with you guys. It'd be particularly interesting to see if it works...
Anyway, the following is the article from www.brandweek.com:
Getting Paid to Watch TV? Sort of.
November 01, 2006
By Mike Beirne
"CHICAGO -- Members of frequent-flyer clubs for Continental, Delta, Northwest and US Airways airlines can earn miles by simply watching online ads on e-Miles.
The Dallas-based advertising channel goes live today and consumers will be invited by their carriers' loyalty clubs to earn 20 to 30 miles for every minute they spend interacting with advertisements. They'll receive 250 miles toward their preferred airline just for registering. Visitors pick which ads they want to view and advertisers get access to a group of consumers that are overwhelmingly college educated, earn above-average income and work in professional occupations. Advertisers pay for the exposure only when the audience engages with their message.
"e-Miles succeeds where traditional online advertising has failed by giving consumers a reason to engage," Mark Drusch, president of e-Miles, said in a statement. "By offering real engagement at the consumer's request, e-Miles transforms advertising from an interruption to an opportunity and lets advertisers strategically capitalize on the evolution of consumer empowerment."
The e-Miles business model is an offshoot of e-Rewards, which engages 2.4 million pre-selected U.S. and Canadian consumers to answer online marketing surveys in exchange for e-Rewards currency that can be redeemed with such partners as Zales, Hertz, eBags, Blockbuster and Hilton. The four e-Miles carriers and American Airlines also are e-Rewards partners. A company statement hinted that other U.S. airlines and a European carrier are expected to join e-Miles."
posted by Brand007 @ 6:24 AM
2 Comments:
I think this is a great idea! My mother is the ultimate business woman that travels from state to state on a weekly basis. She relies heavily on her frequent flyer miles for family vacations. Some of the places we have been fortunate to visit because of her frequent flyer miles include Hawaii, annual trips to California for the holidays, etc...I can only assume that other frequent flyers rely on their miles for additional travel. Tying advertisements to the frequent flyer miles is a great idea because business executives or frequent travelers are exposed to the ads for an exchange that is very motivating.
I agree that this idea is definitely unique and might help but it doesn't solve the issue of engaging consumers. How can this guarantee that consumers wont just click on the commercials and not really watch them. All they would want is the miles, so they just have to click on a bunch of commercials and not really have to watch them.
Something that i really liked as an online method of advertising is when a brand sponsors a television episode that can be viewed online. For example, i watched an episode of Prison Break online because i missed when it aired on television; Verizon sponsored this episode and only their commercials played during breaks. In addition, the entire commercial did nt have to be watched, just 20-30 seconds of and then you were able to continue the episode. I think that this is a more effective approach.
-Shauny Lamba
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