Interactive television production and marketing company Cylo inked a deal with e-commerce technology firm Cybuy that aims to enable consumers to make a purchase from an interactive TV ad.
Under the terms of Wednesday’s deal, the pair plan to offer cable companies and ad agencies access to a system that will provide purchasing capabilities to TV viewers.
Cylo produces TV, Web, and interactive TV ads and content for clients including Ford Motor Company, American Express, Nasdaq, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, Nike and General Mills. Silicon Alley-based Cybuy, on the other hand, makes software that powers transactional e-mail.
The companies aim to join Cybuy’s back-end transaction technology with Cylo’s portfolio of interactive TV marketing services. Cylo will offer Cybuy’s transaction system and database interfacing capabilities to its clients.
“Interactive television will give broadcast advertisers an unprecedented opportunity to engage consumers in a dialogue and elicit immediate responses,” said Cybuy chief executive Dom DiMascia. “Our technology and infrastructure, proven in the Internet space, provide an efficient, secure, cost-effective means for those transactions to take place.”
“Cylo’s experience, credibility and relationships within the television industry provide a strong launching pad for Cybuy’s continued growth in the interactive TV space,” DiMascia said.
Cybuy, a subsidiary of NatWest Bank, said its system can interface with an advertiser’s inventory database to deliver dynamically generated offers, in a manner similar to the way HotSocket and MediaPlex, among others, deliver ads and offers.
“Cybuy’s technology and experience with developing high-volume transaction systems fills a niche not fully being serviced in the interactive television space,” said Kirt Gunn, chief marketing officer at Cylo. “Cybuy’s scalable infrastructure and ability to interface with multiple databases and fulfillment partners is a perfect fit for companies that want to bring transactional services to subscribers and attract new revenue streams from advertising and commerce transactions.”
The deal is the second recent effort by Cylo to offer its clients interactive TV technology services through a partnership. In November, the firm inked a similar deal with New York-based ACTV, to offer convergence technology to Cylo’s advertising and production partners. ACTV and its subsidiaries create technologies for targeted, interactive television content and advertising.
