IAB Engage: Rimmel first to use new dual-screen ITV ad format

By Maisie McCabe, mediaweek.co.uk, Thursday, 25 October 2012 03:35PM

Rimmel London, the cosmetics brand, will be the first advertiser to use ITV's new synchronised ad format this weekend, when one of its digital ads appears on 'The X Factor' app at the same time as an ad is shown on ITV1.

Fru Hazlitt: ITV's managing director of commercial and online at IAB Engage

The ad format was unveiled by Fru Hazlitt, managing director of commercial and online at ITV, as part of her presentation at the Internet Advertising Bureau's Engage conference at the Barbican in central London today (25 October).

In activity planned and bought by OMD UK, 'The X Factor' app, which was created by FremantleMedia UK Interactive and is currently available for iOS mobiles and tablets, will display a digital ad to complement the ad on TV.

The ad format, to be known as Ad Sync, was trialled with Carat and Arla Foods' Cravendale brand in September, and Hazlitt said a quarter of the audience on the play-along app chose to engage further with the brand.

This afternoon Hazlitt warned companies not to get carried away with technology. She said the different sectors within the media industry should stop predicting each other's death and concentrate on "delivering to our customers".

Although Hazlitt had been asked to give a session on the merits of a pure-play digital business versus the challenges of a traditional business, she rejected the brief in favour of talking about the sales mantra of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

Hazlitt said: "Finally, we all need to stop saying 'digital'. Everything has a digital form now and we are in danger of sounding like our dads, for God's sake, if we continue to draw this line. At the core of everything has to be the belief of what we are delivering to our customers.

"In ITV's case, we know that yes, our audience has some early adopters and digital purists, but mostly it's about the mass market, who take a while to change. We need to respect those viewers, innovate within their reach, while still strengthening our core business.

"Really, really, really, keep it bloomin' simple."

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk