According to the DMA (Direct Marketing Association), TV direct response sales (e.g., infomercials etc.) totaled $1.5 trillion in the past four years. So given this pot of tv-driven sales, where should you look for more interactive television commerce revenue? Here are five t-commerce sales strategies to follow:

1. Purchase with Remote: HSN, a tech leader in the iTV space has driven incremental revenue with it's not-too-many remote clicks single screen application. Shop By Remote has been embraced by both current and new customers and demonstrates the power of "remote" shopping for the DR world at large. Technical hurdles remain but they are being overcome (yes, I mean EBIF).
2. Local MSO iTV Apps: MSOs are gaining traction with local iTV engagements (e.g., Comcast Spotlight and Cablevision Optimum Select). But they need to solve the t-wallet dilemma which currently requires customers to separately register payments adding a needlessly complicated consumer barrier. It's time to call PayPal.
3. Upselling Premium Content: You might not think of this as t-commerce but Showtime certainly does. They've registered solid success with their single-screen Showtime app where instead of seeing a boring blue screen, viewers can preview premium content and purchase immediate access.

   History Channel Shopping Widget Spot

4. Shopping Widgets with Primary Screen CTAs: You may be familiar with History Channel's Shopping Widget (read my blog or catch the video of the panel I moderated at TVOT NYC). As History Channel's Elizabeth Braiman reported at the Cable Interacts conference, they've seen "Through the roof engagement levels...7x more effective than clicking through from the web...average of 5 minutes per visit on widget." The main screen CTA bug is key here. [read more]  

1. MSO Regional Ad Interactivity Becoming Routine: Comcast's Mike Ortman noted that Comcast Spotlight has completed 1,700 campaigns (EBIF) with 4.5 billion impressions and is currently available in 15mm HH and 50 DMAs. Average interaction rate stats: RFI 0.08%; linear to VOD 0.19%; remind / record 0.19%, this last feature proving very popular with programmers and movie studios. Similarly, Time Warner's Chris Faw noted that they have lit up 30 markets with 7.5mm homes and delivered 2.5 billion impressions. Albeit impressions are not the same as interactions but in terms of interactive engagement, I'll take the Comcast percentages. We're a long ways from Canoe Ventures' national ad vision but at least the above efforts keep advertisers engaged and learning.
2. Many Familiar Interactive Advertising To Do's Noted: Platform standards (yes EBIF is alive); scale to attract national advertisers; ability to plug into agency systems; need for greater experimentation by advertisers; lack of business model, particularly one that doesn't disrupt current revenue streams.
   
3. Comcast's Smart App a Sign of Templates to Come: Ortman mentioned that Comcast's app partner Ensequence will be meeting with programmers to gauge interest in a single-screen interactive template that would aim to increase ratings and in-app ad inventory via a standardized template. I've long argued that given the upfront costs in both time and money required to develop iTV apps, a template strategy (whether across a network, programming group or MSO) makes most sense.
4. Learning by Doing: Hans Deutmeyer of HBO spoke in detail of the premium network's interactive experience for Game of Thrones. HBO built off the first season's web experience to create "elegant but not interruptive engagements" for the iPad. [read more]