ITV has launched a new interactive ad format, which allows viewers to pause TV to interact with brands, at its Showcase event in Manchester – and more detail emerged about those ‘active discussions’ for Sky’s takeover of ITV’s media and entertainment business.
Live on stage at ITV’s biggest advertiser event outside of London on 18 June at HOME Theatre, Gamal Fahnbulleh, ITV News broadcaster and journalist, was joined on stage by ITV’s Commercial MD Kelly Williams and Jason Spencer, ITV Business Development Director.
With two divisions at the broadcaster – ITV Studios and Media & Entertainment (M&E) – Kelly Williams made it clear that the Sky sale talks are for its media and entertainment division, which includes its commercial team.
READ MORE: ITV confirms preliminary £1.6billion Sky sale talks
“What I can say is that Sky and ITV are continuing to have active discussions. They’re really active about Sky acquiring the media and entertainment side,” Kelly Williams told Gamal Fahnbulleh at the event.
“In the media industry, today is almost unrecognisable from a decade ago,” he explained. “Globally, it is dominated by three very powerful companies, you have Google, Amazon and Meta and they account for something like 58% of the global ad revenue.
“We’ve been saying for some time now as broadcasters that to compete effectively against these global platforms and these growing UK global streaming services, that the UK broadcasters need to collaborate together. We think to thrive in this world, we do need to work together, and I guess this deal is a direct response to those changes.”
Quizzed by Fahnbulleh on when a deal could happen or conclude, Williams added: “if a deal is done, it will of course be reviewed by the Competition and Markets Authority and we would expect that process to take many months”.
He continued: “I should say at this point, as soon as we do have news we can share, we’ll be contacting our customers directly.”
Lead Gen Pause Ads was also announced as the new interactive ad format for advertisers that brings together ITV’s Pause Ads and Lead Gen Ads tools into a new format.
It combines Pause Ads on ITVX with ITV’s Lead Gen technology and gives viewers the option to receive follow up communication or special offers from the brand through using their remote control, before returning to the show.
The new format is also designed to give performance brands, without video assets, ‘precision targeting’ to generate leads from TV audiences.
ITV is also inviting a limited number of advertisers to take part in its beta testing programme in the Autumn.
ITV’s Lead Gen technology was first unveiled at ITV’s Showcast event in Manchester last year, which helps advertisers to capture interest and qualified leads directly from TV ads on ITVX, viewers can also register their interest to share their details with brands through the interactive format.
“For performance brands without video assets, this gives you precision targeting to generate leads from the most valuable audiences on TV,” added Jason Spencer, ITV’s Business Development Director.
The event, hosted by Joel Dommett, also featured a special live version of the 1% club where Lucy Mason from Emergency Hero walked away with £100,000 of ITV Pause Advertising for the brand.
Aaron McWilliam, founder of Emergency Hero, said: “Winning this is an absolute game changer for us, especially at the stage we are as a business.”
There was also a keynote from Dr Karen Nelson-Field, founder of Amplified, global thought leader and media scientist, on what a challenger brand is, why attention matters and why dull media hurts. She revealed new research, demonstrating how TV lifts memory by 20% for buyers and by 65% for non-buyers of the brand.
Case studies from brands Shutterly Fabulous, Task Rabbit and Subway also featured in the iconic setting of the Big Brother Diary room with Craig Morris, ITV’s Director of Channels, ITVX and Acquisitions, presenting clips and tasters of the biggest upcoming shows and series on ITV.
