GMTV is among the first brands to use a new widget technology that creates a customised messaging system on customers’ desktops.
The Elertz widget can be installed easily from a website and sit quietly in the system tray of someone’s computer until a relevant message, such as a new promotion, is received.
It allows brands to create a direct communications channel with their customers, who can control what promotional information they receive. They click on a message which takes them straight through to the relevant page on the brand’s website.
Using the Adobe technology, it runs on any browser, operating system or hardware platform and offers click-through rates of over 90 per cent.
The alerts are delivered in the form of a discreet flashing red star in the user\'s widget. Clicking on the star takes the user directly to the relevant part of the website where the requested information is published.
Steve Morris, chief executive of Elertz, said: \"Marketers are allocating huge amounts of budget to online campaigns, yet they must wake up to the need for a far more sophisticated approach to online marketing that reflects customer demand and enables users to manage their own information requiremenets.
\"The Elertz widge allows users to pull information on demand - and, by putting more power in the hands of the user, marketers can actually boost customer loyalty and brand value.
\"Most online marketers see broadcast email as their favourite direct response channel but they all get frustrated with decreasing delivery and open rates. The Elertz widget is the best way to enhance these broadcast email campaigns to drive up delivery rates, open rates, customer value and boosting revenue but it has to be reliable and trusted.
\"While email marketing remains a strong online option, companies are now achieving a 70 per cent delivery rate at best, and 20 per cent open rates are typical. Using the Elertz widget, online marketers can transform the online relationship with customers, with delivery rates well in excess of 90 per cent, and open rates in the same range.\"
To see the GMTV Elertz widget in action, go to: http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=28508