MBN, Monte Bubbles Network

OMMA OPENS TODAY

Consumer Confidence With Complex Transactions Peaks Online Auto Insurance Sales

INTERACTIVE TELEVISION PRODUCES HIGHER VIEWER involvement

WEB TRAFFIC TO CBS' MARCH MADNESS DECLINED

VDS To Introduce Promotor at NAB 2006

THIRD SCREEN" COULD become a primary advertising outlet

OMMA OPENS TODAY

Today we attended OMMA. The Business of the internet.

By William Hoehne

I found that I was the oldest person at the event where many panels were held dealing with the net. Most of those heading the panels where young enough to be my children.

Panel Discussions deal with such topics as the internet becoimg the primary distribution channel for all media, Online content, Measurement of who and how many coming to sites, changing media buying practices.

There was much information given this first day but what stood out greatly was how litle is really known.

Just what should be measured and how and whose measurements are to be used.

And the "L" word kept coming,lawyers. The fear of endless litigation was always on the lips of those speaking. What content could be used and not used, rights verus no rights to use material.

There was much to be learned about this medium and over the next few days I hope to share this with you.

IndyCar Series driver Paul Dana was pronounced dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital – a Level 1 trauma center – in Miami just before noon (EST) from injuries suffered in a race warm-up crash at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Driver Ed Carpenter will remain in the hospital overnight for observation, according to Dr. Henry Bock, the Indy Racing’s League’s senior director of medical services. Scans showed nothing broken. Both drivers were airlifted to the trauma center.

About two minutes (10:03 a.m. EST) into the session in preparation for the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Carpenter’s car spun and made contact with the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier, and then slid down the racetrack. It almost came to a stop when it was struck in the left-rear by Dana’s car traveling at full speed.

“Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with the Dana family and everyone associated with the Rahal Letterman race team,” Indy Racing League president and COO Brian Barnhart said in making the announcement at the track.

Team co-owner Bobby Rahal said the Nos. 15 (Buddy Rice) and 16 (Danica Patrick) cars would not compete in the race in honor of their teammate. Rahal said the team would compete at the April 2 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, and plans for the No. 17 Rahal Letteran Racing Team Ethanol car are unclear.

“It is a very black day for us, and on behalf of our entire team our prayers and sympathy go out to the entire Dana family,” Rahal said.

Barnhart said the yellow dashboard and track caution lights functioned properly, the starter was waving the yellow flag and spotters relayed the track's status via radio to drivers immediately after Carpenter's car made contact with the SAFER Barrier. The IndyCar Series has long been recognized as the motorsports leader in safety equipment on the cars and at racetracks at which it competes.

"It's a busy time out there with a lot of traffic and Paul was the second car involved with the accident," he said.

Rahal said there weren't any communication problems. "The spotter made clear the incident," he said.

Barnhart said discussions were held with International Speedway Corp. officials, including track president Curtis Gray, with the decision to contest the 200-lap race. A moment of silence was observed during the invocation.

Last year, Dana competed in three races with Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing with a best finish of 10^th at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He suffered a season-ending back injury during the first week of practice for the 89^th Indianapolis 500.

He was looking for a fresh start after the setback, and qualified ninth in the No.17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol Panoz/Honda/Firestone.

“It is literally a dream come true to be driving for Rahal Letterman Racing,” he said recently. “As a young driver, you dream about an opportunity like this with a championship-caliber team. I am certainly behind my teammates (Buddy Rice and Danica Patrick) in terms of experience, but even though I didn’t run a lot of laps last season, I did log a lot of time in the pits, and I learned a lot of things just by watching.

“I feel great after a strong winter of workouts. I am fully recovered from last year’s injury and I feel better than I have ever have.”

Dana, a St. Louis native and Indianapolis resident, was runner-up in the 2004 Indy Pro Series standings. He literally worked his way up the racing ladder, taking a number of jobs to learn and pay the rent, including mechanic, racing instructor and marketing account representative while competing various series. Dana would have turned 31 on April 15. He is survived by his wife Tonya.

Carpenter qualified 13^th in the No. 20 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone. Entering his third year in the IndyCar Series, he had a best finish of 10^th last year at Nashville Superspeedway. This year, Vision Racing expanded to a two-car team with the addition of veteran driver Tomas Scheckter.

Iraqi soldiers, with assistance from U.S. troops, detained 52 suspected insurgents March 24 during Operation Scorpion, a sequential cordon and search of eight villages in and around Hawijah, Iraq, that military officials said yesterday had ended. During the second Iraqi-led operation in as many months, soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, confirmed that 24 out of the 52 detainees were on their target list, built from their own intelligence gathering.

The other detainees are being held for further questioning. "This Iraqi army brigade has made tremendous progress in the five months we've been working with them," said U.S. Army Col. David Gray, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, which assisted the Iraqis. "In October, they were loosely organized and not very well trained. The success of Operation Scorpion, and their ability to conduct a complex mission in the Hawijah area without suffering or inflicting casualties, demonstrates their professionalism and improved level of discipline," he said.

The Iraqi-planned and -led offensive started just before sunrise on March 24, as Iraqi soldiers linked up with their U.S. comrades to begin coordinated movement. Just after 4 a.m., Iraqi soldiers moved through the villages, systematically searching for the selected targets that Iraqi intelligence indicated were in the area. OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopters from 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, circled above and soldiers from 1st BCT's 1st Battalion, provided outer perimeter security.

The thorough searches provided intelligence leading to more evidence and capture of more suspects. "The willingness and ability of the Iraqi soldiers to take on a mission of this scope, and in an area that has been a hotbed of terrorist activity, is an indicator of the progress the Iraqi army has made," Gray said. Operation Scorpion began with supporting operations in the village of Mahoos and the city of Kirkuk. While 101st soldiers provided perimeter security, Iraqi soldiers, acting on their own intelligence sources, moved by helicopter into Mahoos, searching for seven terror suspects.

Within two hours of touching down, the Iraqi company had searched its designated targets, captured five of its intended suspects, and was back on helicopters headed for a nearby U.S. Army compound. Meanwhile, in another supporting operation, soldiers from the Iraqi Army's 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, teamed up with soldiers from 1st BCT's 2nd Battalion to conduct raids for suspected terrorists in Kirkuk. As coalition soldiers provided outer cordon security, Iraqi soldiers moved through the neighborhoods, capturing six intended targets. They also discovered a weapons cache of two unregistered AK-47 rifles and various materials used to make improvised explosive devices

Kenseth was leading, but had slowed because he couldn't get past Dale Jarrett, who was fighting to stay on the lead lap. Tired of being held up, Busch rammed Kenseth's back bumper to send him into a slide. That allowed Busch to scoot on by for his fifth victory in the last nine Bristol races.

``I bumped into him a little bit and that was my window to get the lead,'' Busch said. ``If I was still a teammate of his, maybe I would have let him live. But I was hungry.''

Indeed, it was Busch's first victory since joining Roger Penske's team at the start of the season and taking over the famed No. 2 Dodge that nine-time Bristol winner Rusty Wallace drove. Busch celebrated his victory by jumping from his car, grabbing the checkered flag and doing ``snow angels'' on the finish line as a nod to the wintry weather that plagued the track all weekend.

``This is unreal,'' Busch said. ``I'm just so happy to be able to have this car and have Roger's privilege to do so.''

Wallace, who missed his first Bristol race in 23 years because he was in his new job as an analyst for the Indy Racing League, called Busch in Victory Lane. During the call, Busch told him he was naming the winning car ``Rusty.''

``It was very emotional to drive his car,'' Busch said. ``I mentioned to him I am going to name the car, and you could almost see that he had a tear in his eye.'' Kevin Harvick was second and seemed disappointed with his best finish of the season.

``Good day for us, but I hate to see Kurt Busch win,'' Harvick said. ``He's a big whiner. But what do I know?''

Kenseth wound up third, but had to fight for it. He faded after Busch's pass, worked his way back up but drew the ire of Jeff Gordon along the way. The two made contact in the closing laps that sent Gordon spinning all the way back to a 21st-place finish.

Still wearing his helmet and HANS device, Gordon stalked Kenseth on pit road. When Kenseth approached in what looked to be an apologetic way, Gordon gave him a hard shove that knocked him back several feet.

The two were quickly separated by NASCAR officials.

``I'm sure he didn't mean to do it and all that stuff, but I wasn't happy about it,'' Gordon fumed. ``I showed it to him after the race. I like racing with Matt ... that stuff rarely happens with him. But I'm going to give it back what he gives to me.''

Kenseth took full responsibility for the on-track altercation.

``That was my fault, it was an accident and I didn't mean to do it,'' Kenseth said. ``I would be hot, too. He raced hard all day long for his third-place finish and it got taken away from him. I probably should have known better than to go over him.''

Tony Stewart, who led a race-high 245 laps, faded at the end and wound up 12th.

``I am really disappointed,'' Stewart said. ``We had an awesome car, I felt like I ran the most patient race I have ever run at Bristol. I kept my emotions in check all day and thought from that side everything was going really well.''

Bristol is always a race of attrition, with drivers hoping to avoid the numerous accidents while keeping their tempers intact. This one was no different, except that the usual temper tantrums weren't in play until very late in the race. Instead, shoddy driving skills seemed to contribute to most of the 18 cautions.

The many accidents led dozens of torn up race cars -- at one point, a piece of sheet metal from Jarrett's car flew into the stands and was quickly snatched up as a souvenir -- and only 21 of the 43 cars finishing on the lead lap.

According to an analysis released recently by comScore Networks, the total number of auto insurance quotes submitted online increased by 24 percent in 2005 versus the previous year, and insurance policy purchases jumped by 29 percent during the same time period.

Nicolas Tabbal, vice president of comScore's Financial Services division, said "The auto insurance sector grew faster in 2005 than any other financial services category. Purchasing insurance online is more involved than ...paying bills or applying for credit cards. The rapid surge in online auto insurance quotes and purchases... confirms consumers' increased comfort in conducting complex financial transactions online."

Some factors that contributed to the drop in the auto insurer site abandonment rate from 51 percent in 2004 to 44 percent in 2005:

Visual and functional upgrades have enhanced insurer sites, improving navigability, ease of use and site customization. Most insurer and aggregator sites consumers can select from a menu of coverage options and receive recommendations tailored to their specific needs and circumstances.

Technological innovations such as VoIP and online chat enable consumers to connect directly with insurers at any stage in the process, resulting in an increase of quotes submitted at agent insurer sites of 75 percent, and 42 percent more policies purchased online

not just in programs but ads as well, according to a new study from Ball State University's Center for Media Design in Muncie, Indiana, commissioned by interactive TV cable provider GSN. The study, titled "The Power of Play: Exploring the Impact of the iTV 2-Screen Gaming Experience," found that interactive TV programs drove higher levels of consumer engagement with interactive TV commercials, leading to more recall and longer retention of brand awareness.

According to Chris Raleigh, senior vice president of ad sales for GSN, the Ball State study found that one type of TV programming in particular--game shows--was most successful in pushing higher viewer involvement with commercials that also had a "quiz show" theme. Raleigh explained that "the same motivations driving people who play along with the shows also drive their interaction with the commercials: the sense of competition, the sense of challenge, and the fact that you're rewarded."

"Rewards" refers to a points system that allows GSN users who "play along" with commercials to participate in raffles and buy gift cards. Vanity also plays a role in program participation, according to Raleigh: "For 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' we have a leader board that shows the top 10 viewers [who answered questions correctly], and some people really want to get up there." The competitive environment created by social viewing of game shows--for example, vying with family or friends to answer questions correctly--also fits well with interactive programming.

Overall, among viewers participating in game show programming, Raleigh said that 68 to 92 percent also interacted with quiz-style ads, with a 76 percent average participation rate. Of this group, Raleigh claimed almost "100 percent recall of all the interactive ads," as well as "more retention than usual." A high percentage "remembered interacting with a commercial three or four days before."

As advertisers strive to avoid creating a feeling of "intrusion" or content disjuncture in viewers, with the introduction of a competitive, interactive element, according to Raleigh, "all of a sudden, [advertising] becomes non-intrusive."

Furthermore, interactive TV ads provide a higher a level of measurability for consumer engagement than is generally available for ordinary TV. "We get third-party reporting on it from GoldPocket," the nuts-and-bolts digital infrastructure provider behind GSN's service," Raleigh said. "The advertiser gets a report, almost like a post-buy, on demographic information for people who participated in the ads. It will tell you the number of people who interacted with it, and the number of people who got it right." Later, Raleigh boasted that "no one else can put a deck in front of somebody with data from a third party."

With "engagement" the new advertising buzzword, the implications of interactive TV advertising are clear, Raleigh said: "It's a win-win situation. The viewers win because they want more interactivity. And the advertisers win because they're trying to find a way to get through all the ad clutter and reach their consumers."

WEB TRAFFIC TO CBS' MARCH Madness games spiked for the first day of the tournament, but then slowly declined over the next several days, according to new estimates by Nielsen//NetRatings.

The CBS SportsLine network of sites--CBS SportsLine.com, CSTV.com Networks, NCAASports.com, PGA Tour, and TennisDirect.com--drew more than 3.6 million visitors from home and work on Day 1 of the college basketball tournament, March 16. But traffic then started falling off--tapering to approximately 3.1 million on March 17, and 2.1 million on each of the next three days, and then plunging to 1.7 million on Tuesday, March 21 (the most recent date for which Nielsen//NetRatings' figures were available).

CBS SportsLine.com's traffic for the week ending March 19 jumped 219 percent at work, from 1 million unique visitors to 3.2 million. At home, traffic also nearly doubled, from 1.6 million to 3.1 million.

CBS has placed its free March Madness streams front and center of its Web strategy. Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital, last year compared the streams of the games to AOL's Webcast of 'Live 8,' a streamed music event last summer that found a mass broadband audience. "This is our Live 8," Kramer said of the free streaming basketball games, adding that the network expected "huge" viewership. Last year, CBS offered streams of the games, but at a fee of $19.99.

Automatic Generation Of Promos And ‘Coming Ups’ a leading developer of broadcast automation software, content design and plug-in products will be introducing Promotor, a new system for the automatic generation of promos at NAB 2006 in the VDS Booth SL4573.

Promotor is a suite of applications configurable to the operating environment of the broadcaster (graphics, Automation, traffic, etc.) and provides extensive capabilities for the automatic generation and playback of common promo graphics and audio overs. VDS developed Promotor on its Cortex platform with the multi-channel facility in mind. Cortex is a robust, modular platform consisting of core applications and extension modules that support diverse operations such as VDS' AutoClips automated clip titling and branding suite, DiReCT asset management and distribution system and now, Promotor.

The promo types that Promotor provides automation for are bugs, promo clip bugs, audio promos. With Promotor, graphics creation is reduced from several hundred combinations of graphic elements, show names and time slots to one template per graphic type with all dynamic content inserted by Promotor in a just-in-time fashion.

The dynamic content can be entered using the Promotor Authoring Station or can be set to extract content information from the automation playlist or SQL database used for metadata.

Promotor greatly reduces the number of graphics that need to be tested and loaded on the correct air systems while also eliminating the need to create a lot of secondary events on the automation system in order to program events for triggering. Promotor also eliminates the need to program the other secondary events such as keyer events and audio mixers to support the graphics events.

The tightly integrated Promotor interface to the facility station automation system allows for the triggering of complex graphics in a timely manner as graphics and audio promos can be cued in advance of their scheduled airing. In addition, timing, calendar and other rules for the display of these graphics can be set by using the Promotor authoring station.

“Promotor answers a lot of needs for broadcasters who regularly generate graphic and audio promos”, said Larry Mincer, President of VDS. “The system greatly reduces the amount of manual and redundant effort currently required in getting promos to air and at the same time increases the accuracy and frequency, as desired.”

About VDS

VDS is committed to providing automation and content design tools for the broadcast, cable television, internet, and post production markets. VDS designs products for the automated control of broadcast television systems, with an emphasis on graphics-related operations, content distribution and automation, and internet-to-video and video-to-internet systems. VDS content creation systems provide industry tools that deliver graphic design, universal file translation and integration capabilities.

Marketing & Product Development
David-Ray Worthington
905-469-6333
dr@videodesignsoftware.com

THIRD SCREEN" COULD become a primary advertising outlet

THE SO-CALLED "THIRD SCREEN" COULD become a primary advertising outlet for marketers, according to a new report by Magna Global. And the media-buying firm recommends that advertisers begin conducting research on how best to utilize the emerging medium.

"With a potential audience in the billions, as infrastructure is deployed to meet advertisers' needs, we believe this vast untapped market will ultimately emerge as one of the most important of the early 21st century," the report said.

Furthermore, Magna Global said, it expects cell phones to provide the most fruitful opportunities. At the end of 2005, there were more than 2 billion mobile phone users globally, of which 236 million had 3G service enabling video playback--a segment growing exponentially. "With video-capable devices growing market share rapidly, we expect that in the long-run, the best opportunities to market to consumers in mobile environments will be through cellular phones," Magna Global wrote in the report.

Magna Global expects the cell phone segment to provide greater marketing options than two other sectors: "stored mobility," which includes devices such as Sony's PSP and Apple's iPods, and "place-shifting," which allows consumers to remotely access their home cable/satellite services through devices such as SlingBox and coming products from EchoStar, DirecTV, and TiVo.

Still, mobile video as a dynamic ad marketplace may be some time off, since usage is relatively small, although millions of consumers have access to it. The reasons for this include a modest amount of content available, subscription fees, and the cost of handsets. (Text messaging and ring tones remain the "killer apps" on cell phones, according to Magna Global.)

Also, the cell phone industry's infrastructure has some upgrades to make in order to be able to support distribution of live content--as opposed to simply clip-based offerings--to a wide audience, the report said. In a sense, service quality is hampered by many of the problems that years ago plagued AOL on the Internet, including network congestion. But mobile operators are experimenting with ways to improve the systems.

Advertising revenues could bring the financial resources to allow mobile video distributors to overcome these obstacles. But, Magna Global said, several issues need to be resolved to make mobile video "an advertiser-friendly medium." Advertisers need uniform standards allowing them to prepare creative that can be used across multiple networks and devices; a user-friendly buying process that enables the business to support advertisers' needs to make last-minute changes; and a measurement process to ensure advertisers that an a commercial ran and how it performed, including whether it was subject to trick-play behavior.

"With many different places to allocate budgets, it is important that any new medium support the needs of agencies and marketers in executing their media buys," the report said.

Magna Global said that mobile video needs a critical mass of consumers who aren't as easily reached through another medium. The report says, for example, that if 15 percent of Americans used mobile content, and 80 percent of those were also avid viewers of traditional television, the medium might not hold much allure for marketers. But if 80 percent of mobile-content users were adults ages 18 to 24, and half of them did not regularly watch television, Magna Global said "we would have a medium with more than sufficient unduplicated reach for many advertisers."

Overall, mobile operators will need to avoid the same pitfalls that have plagued VOD, and work with advertisers to optimize the medium, the report said. Magna Global said: "we believe that if suppliers had worked more closely with advertisers at the outset of the development of VOD and made accommodations in their favor, VOD would be a much larger business today."