Dealing with classic characters can be tricky, as savvy viewers expect television quality.

"I have a higher standard. The TV people at Cartoon Network are animation purists. I think that Cartoon Network does some of the best animation on television and I have to do the same thing online... I couldn't show my face at Cartoon Network if I did anything less."

Unfortunately, producing appealing animation online means dealing with a daunting array of technology limitations and high user expectations. Visitors to CartoonNetwork.com and other online entertainment sites have grown accustomed to seeing their favorite characters as they appear on television. They expect the animation to have a certain look and feel that in many situations is not possible.

"In all our minds when we watch animation or any entertainment online we think that it should look like TV or a movie. So, one of the biggest challenges is trying to deprogram what people think entertainment online should be. It doesn't have to be exactly like television," explains Register.

"Toonami: The Intruder" was the stunt that started, and proved, the effectiveness of the "Total Immersion" method.

Innovation Through Immersion
Integrating online content with Cartoon Network's on-air programming is an approach that pervades everything CartoonNetwork.com does. When the online world is paired with television to behave like a single entertainment source, both sides can win. Through "Total Immersion Cartoon" events, the network and CartoonNetwork.com collaborate to allow interaction between visitors to the Website and the programming on television.

The week of September 18, 2000 marked the debut of this concept with "Toonami: The Intruder." Special episodes aired in which Tom, animated host of the network's Toonami block of cartoons, battled to save his spaceship from an alien threat. Intertwined with each episode were messages urging viewers to visit Toonami.com, where Nintendo-sponsored enhanced content, games and special contents awaited.

The ambitious stunt, which risked driving viewers away from the television to their computers in the middle of a popular block of programming, proved successful. Online traffic soared 72 percent from the previous week and on-air ratings jumped 50 percent for viewers ages 9-14. "It worked beautifully," recalls Jim Samples. "Nintendo was very happy with it, we were very happy with it. It was the highest trafficked week of the year."

The "Total Immersion" experiment in enhanced television will reappear four times this year, hoping to capture the same success enjoyed by "Toonami: Intruder." Early indications show that "The Powerpuff Popularity Contest," which aired March 19-15, didn't disappoint. The Milk-sponsored event, in which viewers were given the opportunity to vote for their favorite girl by phone or online, featured Powerpuff Girls episodes on the network with advertisements driving viewers to CartoonNetwork.com, where a new pillow fight Powerpuff game awaited, along with special contest-related material.

Though Bubbles won the popularity contest, the real winner was network-online integration. CartoonNetwork.com experienced record traffic numbers and the network showed triple-digit ratings increases in most demographics, as visitors bounced between their televisions and computers. "['The Total Immersion' events] are the most important integrated campaigns we do," Samples says. "Everything that we do online is built in such a way that it is intimately related with what's going on the air."

That, it seems, is something advertisers are looking for.

"As the media alternatives become increasingly fragmented it makes sense to create campaigns that reach across all of those media. That's what we're trying to do here... a virtuous cycle of entertainment experience and advertising appropriately intertwined with that," says Samples.

"[Advertisers] don't want banners, in most cases," says Sam Register. "I spend a lot of time figuring out how we can do partnerships with advertisers that make them happy and make us happy."

It is important to draw advertisers, especially in the current online marketing environment, but keeping the entertainment experience strong takes creative solutions. Using online content to enhance television programming is largely uncharted territory, but results from "Total Immersion" events indicate it's here to stay.