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TV Takes to Touting Shows on Blogs

VH1, TBS, and several PBS affiliates have all taken to promoting their shows on BlogAds, the leading blog advertising network, because inventory is cheap and TV show promoters can target ads to an audience they believe is most likely to watch their programs, Mediapost reports.

The high return on investment and the ability to reach influencers (believed to be a key characteristic of blog readers) attracted Richard Turner, senior vice president of interactive marketing at TBS, to advertising on blogs. “They tend to be an efficient media buy,” he said.

BlogAds doesn’t use CPM pricing, instead charging for ads to run for a specific amount of time, generally ranging from a week to three months. For example, BlogAds displayed 12 million impressions for a PBS affiliate’s documentary about sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, which aired in February. “There aren’t a lot of places where you can spend $1,500 - or up to $5,000 - and get that much exposure and to such a targeted audience,” said Lauren Prestileo, national publicist for PBS’s American Experience series.

The networks have also been increasingly using out-of-home advertising to tout their shows in recent months, according to an article in AdAge earlier this week.