Rovion Puts a Tiny Man in My Computer

There’s a tiny talking man on my computer monitor! If you’ve visited TVGuide.com or FoodNetwork.com lately, you’ve seen him, too. The network is running a campaign on its own site and TVGuide.com using Rovion’s InPerson video technology. The spot automatically streams an image of perpetually chipper Food TV host Marc Summers as he petitions viewers to click on him and vote for their favorite contestant in “The Next Food Network Star” battle.

The 10-day campaign began on April 12, launching with a more introductory branding-style creative and culminating now with a call-to-action to vote online. Viewers can also vote via their mobile phones for the big winner, who will be announced April 20 during the final episode of the season.

According to my chat with Rovion CEO Len Ostroff today, the first creative running on TVGuide.com garnered about a 40 percent full-video watch rate and about a 4 percent CTR, while the call-to-action spot is getting about a 45 percent watch rate and about a 4 percent CTR. Not surprising, the FoodNetwork.com numbers are a lot higher: about 53 percent view rate and 8 percent CTR.

(Still, I checked out the ad on both sites and it goes by so quickly, there’s not really enough time to register the fact that Marc Summers has invaded your computer before he’s done.)

Rovion also ran a campaign on TVGuide.com promoting the 2006 Miss America Pageant on CMT. The 5 day campaign got over 7 percent click-through according to Ostroff.

“After now producing and running a number of campaigns with TV star personalities, we continue to believe that the InPerson technology creates that bridge between broadcast and broadband,” Ostroff told me.

Rovion serves the ads and takes care of the ad production using raw video from its advertiser clients. The company has run its streaming spots on ABC owned and operated station Web sites, CBS Radio station sites, McClatchy newspaper sites, and others.

(By the way, if you know what song I referenced in my headline, you remember when Eddie Murphy was actually funny.)