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LG Brings Ad Capability to Internet-Connected TV

A LEADING marketer of consumer electronics is adding an advertising capability to its Internet-connected televisions through an agreement with a video advertising technology company. And a charter sponsor has already been signed to join them.

Details of the multiyear agreement are to be described on Wednesday by LG Electronics and YuMe, a company that provides video advertising services and software. The first sponsor is Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., which will be promoting the 2012 Toyota Camry as part of what the automaker is calling its largest marketing campaign.

Among examples of ad placements, a viewer of what LG calls its Smart TV would see ads for the 2012 Camry when browsing the TV set’s app store or using the search screen.

The agreement is indicative of the increasing interest on Madison Avenue in using the online video capabilities of Internet-connected television as an advertising medium as sales of such sets continue to grow.

By Christmas morning, said Richard Doherty, research director at Envisioneering, a market research and technical assessment company in Seaford, N.Y., “just about half of American households will have at least one Internet TV.”

“And about 10 percent will be on their second,” he added.

A major reason consumers are buying Internet-connected sets, Mr. Doherty said, is that “they want TV on their terms.”

“Among those under 30,” he added, “Internet TV has become the standard.”

Internet-connected television is also moving beyond early adopters because of lower prices, he said.

“Internet-optimized TV used to have a $400 to $500 differential” in price compared with traditional TV sets, he added, “but now it’s about $100” more.

As Internet-connected television arrives in more living rooms, it is not surprising that marketers and agencies are close behind.

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The sponsorship is “a great opportunity to learn more about the connected-TV space,” said Dionne Colvin, national marketing media manager at Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. in Torrance, Calif., and “build on the knowledge we’ve already gained” through tests.

As consumers’ behavior changes, “we want to design programs and campaigns to speak to them in a way they want to be spoken to,” she said.

That touches on a point that comes up whenever technology brings new devices and services like Hulu, TiVo and YouTube into homes: How can advertising be added to the mix without annoying audiences?

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Toyota is the first company to advertise on the new system.

“It is a challenge,” acknowledged John Lisko, executive communications director at the account’s creative agency, which is the Torrance office of Saatchi & Saatchi, known as Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles; it is part of the Publicis Groupe.

“We’re learning that the more relevant the messaging is for the experience, the better the connection will be with the consumer,” Mr. Lisko said.

For instance, a video clip for the 2012 Camry for the LG TV sets could “have more of a technology message,” he added, in keeping with where and how it will be watched.

Executives at LG and YuMe said they were aware of those considerations in drawing up the agreement.

“We want the audience to love this TV,” said Matthew Durgin, director for the Smart TV content business in North America at LG Electronics U.S.A. in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

“We can’t just go and run amok,” he said. “We have to be tolerant of what the user is willing to accept.”

For example, if a video ad is to play before an app from the TV set’s app store loads, it would run in place of an hourglass icon or ticker — and only until the app was ready to open. And the developer of the app would have to agree to the ad’s appearance.

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Frank Barbieri, senior vice president for emerging platforms at YuMe in Redwood City, Calif., said his company and LG intend “to target ads so they’re more relevant” to viewers, using the experience YuMe has accumulated in operating “an ad platform that serves 1.5 billion video ads a month for online and mobile.”

If LG and YuMe are to achieve what Mr. Barbieri called “the power of Internet advertising with the impact of television advertising,” the owners of the Internet-connected TV sets must like the free content they can watch in exchange for viewing ads.

“We really do think this is one of the biggest technological evolutions for television advertising since there was television advertising,” Mr. Barbieri said.

Although the financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, YuMe will sell the ad inventory, Mr. Durgin said, and the revenue would be divided among “us and YuMe and the application providers.”

Mr. Barbieri demurred when asked if YuMe was in discussions with other consumer electronics marketers to include its software with their TV sets.

However, YuMe also plans to announce on Wednesday that it has received an investment of $12 million from Translink Capital and the Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.

Samsung Venture is the venture capital unit of the Samsung Group, the No. 1 maker of TV sets; LG is second. Other investors in YuMe include Accel Partners and Intel Capital, part of Intel.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: LG Brings Ad Capability To Internet-Connected TV. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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