Remember the information superhighway? According toWikipedia, this was a term used to refer to the Internet until the early 1990s.On Jan. 11, 1994, there was a Superhighway Summit at UCLA which started anational dialogue about the information superhighway and its implications. Weshould have known that this “superhighway” would eventually be used for a lotmore than the exchange of information when you consider the people inattendance: Barry Diller, Robert Iger, Michael Eisner, John Malone, RupertMurdoch and, of course, Al Gore were all there.
As the media execs at this meeting must have predicted, theInternet has emerged as an entertainment medium in the new millennium.
A recent Harris Interactive study conducted for blinkx, theworld’s largest video search engine, found that as many as 78% of US adults goonline while they are watching TV. With wireless connections in the home, it’seasier than ever to bring your laptop into the TV room for multi-tasking.
Twenty-five percent of these multi-taskers are online forinformation that is specific to the programming they are watching, and one infour of these people are actually researching products or services advertisedin the programming. This is a classic example of the emerging synergy betweenTV and online. The sales loop can be closed immediately instead of depending onfuzzy product recall when the viewer makes their way to the store later in theweek to make a purchase. Not to mention how valuable that impulse buy can be,as we have learned with interactive home shopping networks. Advertisers wouldbe wise to take into account the multi-taskers out there by directing them towebsites “right now” in their commercials.
Dan McKillen is president & CEO of the HealthDay newsservice
From the April 01, 2008 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
