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Carmakers worldwide are gearing up for the next step in electronic advertising, which packages television, cellphones and the internet.
Media buyers in the United States call it the Television-Internet Protocol, a medium they say will change car advertising forever.
Says Phil Cowdell, CEO of Ford's media services in the US: "We're only a couple of years away from a quantum shift [in TV advertising]. When you get to the stage through broadband or wireless that you can watch any channel on any computer or handheld device, from anywhere, the whole game changes.
"In effect, the TV set and the internet will come together. You'll get to the stage where you can tailor and address TV messages right down to the individual."
Carmakers, alert to the growth of internet advertising, want more from television than the old-style 30-second commercials. They want deals that include internet, cellphone and podcast marketing, as well as product placement in TV shows.
US industry journal Automotive News says multimedia platforms are playing a big role in bargaining between carmakers and TV networks over advertising rates.
While automotive advertising support for big newspapers and specialist magazines remains strong, carmakers are spending less on TV advertising.
In the US last year, they spent US$2.79 billion ($3.8 billion) with the big networks, down 1.1 per cent from 2005, says survey group TNS Media Intelligence.
Like other carmakers, the Chrysler group wants integrated TV and digital ads to drive consumers to its websites, says Susan Thomson, Chrysler's senior manager of global communications.
"TV is changing," says Thomson. "People are going online to watch their shows."
Users of media players such as Apple's iPod are downloading TV shows to watch in their own time on the digital devices.
Carmakers want more "product integration" from TV networks, deals where cars feature in shows.
For example, the lead character in the US version of the sitcom The Office, played by Steve Carell, drives a Chrysler Sebring sedan. This model will be launched in New Zealand this month.
"People have the ability to tune you out," Thomson told Automotive News. "The networks know that they need to work with us and help us get product integration."
Ford's Cowdell cites his company's role in the hit show American Idol, where contestants appear in music videos featuring Ford vehicles.
Viewers who see such videos are "twice as likely to be predisposed to buy a Ford" as other consumers, says Cowdell.
Ford also advertises on websites and other digital media tied to American Idol.
"Those make the difference," says Cowdell. "They are the things you can activate to really engage the consumer."
Ian Beavis, vice-president of marketing at Kia Motors in the US, says his company is working to integrate its TV and internet advertising to attract consumers to its website.
The site is the best place to influence a potential buyer, Beavis says. "We use the site as an integration engine for pretty much everything we do."
Cowdell says the distinctions consumers make when using their TV sets, personal computers and other digital devices are breaking down.
"It's about a screen," Cowdell says. "It will increasingly be about going through screens to get the content they like. It's choice and control."
Under the old media model, he says, "we used to think that the big advertisers and the media owners were in control. Consumers 'dutifully' received from us."
Now, Cowdell says, media content that consumers find irrelevant "is gone. It's skipped, blipped out."
