Digital Journal TV: Company Building Network Filled Solely With Commercials

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Would you sit through an hour-long show airing only commercials? Or what about visiting a website showcasing the top ads from around the world? New York-based Firebrand hopes so, because its business is focusing on nothing but broadcasting commercials.

Digital Journal — Five years ago, Roman Vinoly was watching TV in his Manhattan apartment when he came across a Diet Dr. Pepper commercial that made him laugh out loud. The commercial was more enjoyable than the TV show he was watching. He began brainstorming a wild idea: A TV network airing only commercials, 24 hours a day.

After years of research and poring through FCC protocol documents, Vinoly is almost there: His company Firebrand debuted in November 2007, producing a one-hour nightly show featuring nothing but ads. It airs on the fledgling Ion TV network, but Firebrand’s website gives commercial lovers nonstop options. Want to see classic Adidas ads? Or how about spots only featuring toilet humour? Firebrand lets viewers search for ads based on keywords, too, in order to make all of its free content easily accessible.

The site has a database of more than 1,700 ads from 600 different companies. Since its launch, Firebrand.com has attracted 250,000 unique visitors who streamed 4.5 million commercials.

But Firebrand isn’t just airing commercials without any method to its ad-ness. During the Ion shows, the spots are arranged in segments according to their context, so a series of football ads may be grouped together, or a selection of ads that relate to one another may be compiled in a playlist. Firebrand hires anchors, or “commercial jockeys” as they’re known, to explain behind-the-scenes info on actors, director or ad companies responsible for the spots just shown.

Long derided for being intrusive, irritating and monotonous, commercials have become Firebrand’s cash crop. The idea to air solely commercials online and in a broadcast attracted $30 million in venture funding from Microsoft, General Electric and NBC Universal, giving Firebrand a boost to realize its big dream: a network airing commercials all day, every day.

Is that appealing for viewers and advertisers? Digital Journal interviewed Firebrand’s co-founder Roman Vinoly to find out what commercials say about our cultural zeitgeist, and why Firebrand is staking its business on a 30-second clip some have called the haiku of television.

DigitalJournal.com: How does Firebrand gather the best and most entertaining commercials in the world? Do you approach companies to get permission, or do they approach you?

Roman Vinoly: We use both methods. We find stuff that we like or what our viewers request via email. And we reach out to production companies and advertisers that created those classic spots. If an old commercial is promoting an old product no longer available, we run the ad free. But now, luckily, ad companies approach us. Which is how it should be.

DigitalJournal.com: What do you say to people who find commercials annoying and intrusive. Why would they watch Firebrand on Ion or on the Web?

Vinoly: Commercials are irritating or intrusive unless they are put in a place where they aren’t interrupting your favourite show. When spots are properly curated and contextualized for flow, they can engage viewership. And we’ve found that when people surf our site, they watch content between 15 and 20 minutes at a time. That’s an impressive number for any Web surfing session at one site.

DigitalJournal.com: So what’s appealing about the commercials Firebrand airs?

Vinoly: They can be frilly entertainment or they can be moving and emotionally compelling. Creative artists who produce ads are working in a medium filled with so many obstacles, because they have to reach beyond the ordinary to get people to pay attention. Commercials are an incredibly powerful look at our popular culture and popular icons. When you take out crappy ads and leave in the good stuff, it makes for the most compelling TV in the world.

DigitalJournal.com: Sure, some commercials can be very entertaining, but where does Firebrand want to go with this? What’s your ultimate goal?

Vinoly: We want to be everywhere, showing no prejudice to any distribution method or medium. We are already on the Web but we want to become a network airing commercials 24/7. It’s a situation that will be better for consumers and advertisers.

This episode of Digital Journal TV brings you inside Firebrand. We weigh-in on the pros and cons, and dish out a few of our favourite commercials from the company. Check out the TV spot above for your peek into this new commercial endeavour.