SeeSaw will tonight launch the first stage of a £5m TV advertising drive to attempt to make the online TV service a household name.

The campaign, which begins with a series of 10-second teaser ads, breaks across Channel 4's portfolio of TV services tonight. The campaign will then broaden to run on ITV, Channel Five, digital multichannel stations and high-traffic websites.

SeeSaw has brought on board ad agency Fallon to develop the series of three teaser commercials in the hope of building the brand into one of the next household names, just as the agency managed with the Cadbury "Gorilla" and Sony "Balls".

The three teaser ads will be followed by a major TV campaign that will break in the second quarter of this year, when SeeSaw plans to launch a paid-for video-on-demand offering.

Fallon has developed teaser ads that feature the SeeSaw logo acting out scenes of romance, comedy and action. The campaign will also introduce the strapline, "If you love TV, SeeSaw.com".

"The first phase of the marketing activity will drive awareness of SeeSaw across a broad audience of TV fans, through both broadcast and online," said Maya Bhose, the head of brand marketing at SeeSaw. "The brief to Fallon was to bring to life the campaign strapline with a series of engaging executions, reinforcing the relationship between SeeSaw and great TV. Our advertising strategy will develop further as we move towards the pay launch of the service later in the year."

SeeSaw, built from the technology developed for the defunct Project Kanagaroo, officially launched last week offering 3,000 hours of BBC, Channel 4 and Channel Five VoD programming.

Programming is currently free to access but SeeSaw will begin charging for some content some time in the second quarter when US shows are expected to be added to the service.

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