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Success Story: Buyers Get Into the Act

May 9, 2005  •  Post A Comment

By Sheree R. Curry



When ABC affiliate KRGV-TV in Weslaco, Texas, decided to redesign its Web site to allow for streaming video of news footage, it expanded the idea to include 30- and 60-second video streams from advertisers. To launch the option, the Mobile Video Tapes-owned station is running a yearlong ad sales promotion that has viewers vying for nearly $75,000 worth of prizes.

Every month in 2005 a different advertiser-sponsor is being highlighted online, and videos from all 12 sponsors are available 24 hours a day. Each advertiser provides $4,000 in prizes. Valley Med Spa gave away a spa package in April, and Ron Hoover, an RV dealer, is giving away a travel package for May.

To enter the drawing, viewers must first view the sponsor vignette of the month. The advertisers can simply repeat a 30-second spot they have running on-air, but WKRG encourages them to opt for the longer-form online-only ad that the station’s production team can produce as part of the deal.

Viewers can register only once per month per e-mail address for that month’s prize; however, they can enter as many as 13 times per month for a grand prize of $20,000 toward a new vehicle from showcase sponsor Bert Ogden, an auto dealer. Viewers qualify for the grand prize by viewing any one of the other videos that is not that month’s sponsor.

“This brings in repeat traffic and drives interest in the other sponsors when it is not their month,” General Sales Manager John Kittleman said.

“Each sponsor gets over 1,000 downloads a week,” he said. “We are streaming between 12,000 and 14,000 requests a week. And that’s about three times more than we anticipated.”

About three to five on-air spots per day alert viewers to the contest.