Advertisers have long complained about constraints that prevent them from dynamically inserting ads in VOD. Typically, they have had to embed unalterable ads into programming for several months at a time, content with staying power. There was no opportunity for an automaker launching a sale, an advertiser with ineffective creative, or a movie company wanting to promoting a future premiere to swap in updated creative.

Paramount Pictures will soon try out dynamic advertising in a Video on Demand (VOD) environment. The test is on Sunflower Broadband who has 30,000 subscribers, half of which are located in and around Lawrence and Kansas City, Kansas. The campaign will let an advertiser switch ad creative on the fly (perhaps within hours) rather than having it stuck to content for weeks at a time.

The seller in this case is Sunflower who is using AdPulse On Demand provided by VOD ad serving firm SeaChange International. The buyer is Paramount Pictures through their agency Mediaedge:cia who is using aQuantive's Atlas On Demand and promoting the new film "jackass number two."

Its goal is to allow advertisers to dynamically target, optimize and track VOD spots including tracking brand exposure duration and engagement, ad impressions and reach, as well as customized data. For now, the ads are targeted by content, though it is expected that Sunflower will offer geographic targeting sometime in the future.

At this point, only Viacom's free Comedy Central On Demand content will include the dynamically-inserted spots. Sunflower also offers content from providers including Oxygen Media and the Scripps Network's Food Network.

Since July of last year, Atlas has announced partnerships with three other VOD technology firms in addition to SeaChange, including C-Cor, Tandberg Television and Everstream. As of yet, none of those relationships has resulted in actual advertiser campaigns like the Paramount effort.