Levi_s dresses Web site with TV ads.

Levi Strauss_s first dip into the "experiential e-commerce" pool has been a learning experience for both the jeans maker and its customers. The Levi_s brand worked with San Francisco-based Convergence Mediagroup to launch an interactive version of its popular Invisible People television advertising campaign on its Web site in late August. The streaming ad was embedded with a variety of e-commerce capabilities to allow viewers to purchase Levi_s products and answer trivia questions with a chance of winning Levi_s merchandise. However, in breaking new ground with its use of technology in advertising the company has had to deal with considerable frustration. "We_ve gotten good consumer feedback from the ad," said Barth Ballard, the company_s digital marketing manager. "But it_s a very high-end experience for the Web. When you talk about the convergence of television and the Internet, this is it, and whenever you_re the first to do something, not everyone is ready for it." Levi_s would not release financial details of the campaign. The primary technological obstacle for such tools, as is the case with many Internet-based broadcast ventures, is bandwidth--the carrying capacity of the phone line, cable, or other transmission medium--which determines the speed of information that downloads into one_s personal computer. That changes the experience for the viewer, said interactive advertising senior analyst Jim Nail of Forrester Research. "People are on the Web to research products and get information, so these kinds of ads are ineffective unless you offer some kind of utility," he said. "I don_t know why ad agencies are so obsessed with making the Web into TV. What they should be doing is recognizing that the Web and TV play two different roles. TV is great at building brand awareness, but the Web doesn_t do that."