Television group owner Raycom is planning to use the internet to stay in touch with its loyal viewers throughout the day via emailed digests and alerts – a vehicle its advertises can hitchhike on. They go to computers and to mobile phones.
Raycom says it’s acting on a Nielsen Media Research finding that 41.2% of adults 18+ visited a television station website over a specified period of time. Many studies clearly show a shift of advertising dollars from traditional media to the web, and by offering an internet-delivered service to its viewers, it offers its advertisers another way to reach them.
Raycom VP/Digital Media Pat LaPlatney said, “Deploying a digital alerts platform strengthens our digital leadership position in each of our active markets as we can now further our engagement and communication with our audience, as they can access a state-of-the-art subscription platform to receive our local and/or national content when and where they want it. We have seen very strong growth over the past year in the demand for push based content and particularly mobile content.”
The television group is partnering with Alerts.com to make the program a reality. “Pascal Stolz, CEO of Alerts.com said, “As alerts are in the vernacular of local stations – think local news, traffic, severe weather – it was a logical opportunity for Alerts.com to private label our capabilities for Raycom Media and others.”
RBR/TVBR observation: Anything you can do to remain top of mind with people is a good thing, as long as you don’t make it there as an annoyance factor. Most people like to know when something is brewing in their neighborhood, so if we were in a Raycom market, we’d be scrambling to catch up right now.
