Cendant Pairs With Web Firm To Create TV Ads

WSJ ( Read the whole story... paid subscription required)
Spot Runner, a Web startup that creates low-priced TV commercials, is expected to announce an agreement with Cendant Corp. today to sell customized TV spots to Cendant's network of real estate agents and brokers. Spot Runner is not the first company to use online systems to sell conventional media. Google famously bought radio advertiser dMarc Broadcasting a few weeks ago, with a similar intention. Using the Web makes it cheaper for Spot Runner to broker and develop TV ads: its Web-based system brokers ad time on local broadcast and cable TV channels while its database of content allows users to select images and backgrounds to create ads. The move could be bad news for print media, which relies on real estate advertising in papers' classifieds sections. Real estate advertising is estimated at $11 billion last year, according to Borrell Associates, with only a fraction going to TV. Spot Runner executives said advertisers can create 30 second TV spots for less than $200 in many local markets and less than $50 in smaller ones. -