Another add to the digital party this week at Advertising Week. This morning at 9 am investors from Microsoft, NBC Universal and GE’s Peacock Equity Fund, ION Television, as well as Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek, among others, joined a group of us for an early am press conference at the Paley Center for Media to introduce Firebrand.
Firebrand is first network that’s turning the commercial break into a
commercial destination. You are no longer the commercial target. You
target the commercials. Choose what brands you interact with, choose how you interact with them.
Firebrand is a new, opt-in entertainment and marketing destination that
gives consumers interactive access to their favorite brands, products
and promotions. Firebrand programs the “coolest” TV commercials the
way MTV used to program music videos and its multi-platform network,
slated to launch on October 22, is the first to go “live”
simultaneously on TV, the web and mobile.
Firebrand even has CJ’s (commercial jockeys), the same way MTV had VJ’s, who will contextualize the commercials as art and entertainment, and guide consumers through playlists, contests and promotions.
Conceptually I think it is cool. it does "fuse the blue" .. but my hunch says that using the word "commercial" will turn off consumers. Does anyone choose to be sold? I look forward to see if this get taken past the :30 second commercial and allows for an interactive experience that could offer a retail or volume driving pay off for brands who venture into the space.
Check it out at http://www.firebrandtv.com
I would love to see this companies offering push the boundaries of content and the integration of brands into content. What I do love about this is the fact that this about choice for the consumer.
People may not want to be sold, but they sure like to buy – and I’d say that helping people buy (by letting them get the commercials they want, when and where they want them) is at the heart of Firebrand’s vision.
G