BrightLine CEO on Canoe ending iTV ad platform

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BrightLine, an interactive TV advertising provider, is primed to shepherd iTV into its next phase following the announcement that Canoe Ventures will be shutting down its iTV advertising platform.


“BrightLine has created and implemented more than 300 fully immersive interactive experiences to date, and has more than tripled in size between 2010 and 2011,” said Jacqueline Corbelli, BrightLine’s Founder, Chairman and CEO. “While Canoe has helped bring iTV into the industry lexicon, they could never fully take advantage of the medium. Major advertisers like Kellogg’s, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson, with our help, have been leading this charge and will continue to reach new levels of ROI and effectiveness by exploiting the power of interactivity in TV advertising.”

In 2011 BrightLine expanded its roster to a total 65 clients, including GlaxoSmithKline, American Express, L’Oreal, Red Bull, PepsiCo, and McNeil/J&J. They also were the recipient of a $30 million investment from JMI Equity.

Different than Canoe (and probably why Canoe did not prosper with advertisers), BrightLine helps clients build data-informed iTV campaigns and then adapt them to the different interactive TV platforms that exist. While Canoe tried to herd all the cable companies together to build a single technology platform, it mired itself down and ultimately paralyzed their own efforts, claims BrightLine.

In a panel at the recent ANA TV & Everything Video Forum, BrightLine showcased content-rich national programs that highlighted the capabilities that interactive TV holds against Canoe Ventures’ RFI campaigns. A Canoe client on that panel said, “What BrightLine is doing, where they’re creating a whole immersive experience, is one whole separate area of interactivity.”

RBR-TVBR asked Rob Aksman, the co-founder and Chief Experience Designer at BrightLine, the following:

What are the technical differences between BrightLine and Canoe’s solutions?

BrightLine is not a technology platform, but rather leverages proprietary software to piece together ALL the technology platforms available to deliver 90 MM homes to our client brands in a way that represents for them a one-stop national iTV solution.  BrightLine’s proprietary intelligent design engine and data set enables the firm to design and execute an iTV experience that spans a multitude of operators, not just cable, but also including satellite, telco, and connected devices to truly reach a full footprint.

BrightLine is completely platform agnostic, and leverages the technologies already in place across each and every TV service provider, whether it be Dish, DirecTV, Comcast, Xbox, or Verizon Fios, etc.

What cable MSOs are on board?

There is nothing to “be on board with” in the BrightLine model, which eliminates the need to feed competing interests.  BrightLine works every day to implement iTV solutions directly with all the providers.   

BrightLine says it plans to make that type of interactivity the face of the industry, bringing the dialogue around this growing demand that savvy marketers have already figured out how to satiate to the forefront of the future of television.

In six years, BrightLine has designed and executed more than 300 iTV programs Unilever (more than 25 brands), Kellogg’s, GlaxoSmithKline, T.D. Ameritrade, Burger King, McNeil, and JP Morgan Chase. BrightLine’s process also aggregates consumer behavior trends and measures  program results across all cable, satellite, and other TV platforms.