Timeshifting Savvy
For a while now, big brands have been complaining that the rise of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) like TiVo have made their expensive broadcast advertisements less effective. If people fast-forward through the commercials, why spend millions on production and placement?
This ominous feeling was allayed a bit last month, when Nielsen reported that “DVR owners watch forty percent of commercials even when they watch recordings later, whether because they do not mind commercials or do not bother to fast-forward through them.”
This finding seemed to give the networks some leverage to defend their rate cards, but, some advertisers have still been pushing for sophisticated metrics – even going so far as to demand ratings figures for individual commercials. (This raises a dilemma, as the NY TIMES noted: just as a good-or-bad tv show can act as a good-or-bad lead-in to the subsequent broadcast, a good/bad commercial could seal the fate of the follow-on advertisement!)
What’s really cool, though, is watching companies innovate around these old models & problems.
Take Trimspa: it was reported last week that the diet fadmeisters’ first post-Anna commercial will be “TiVo-proof.” How??
The advertisement will feature 400+ Before/After photos of Trimspa users. As a DVR user fast-forwards through the commercial, the “morphing” effect will be as interesting to watch as it would be for “real-time” viewers of the advertisement.
A simple & clever solution to the timeshifting conundrum. I don’t know a thing about the effectiveness of Trimspa’s products, but I applaud the innovation of their latest advertising approach.
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Comments
I also like what E! does with Talk Soup ... whether it's on purpose or not we'll never know. They cut into a commercial break with a quick 5 or 10 seconds of 'show,' so when you see it, you react and press play ... forcing you to see the subsequent commercial.
Posted by: David Weiner | March 21, 2007 03:19 PM
Forty percent of the commercials are being watched? That's fairly high compared to what I'd have guessed, but that's still sixty percent of commercials skipped.
Here's a thought: maybe consumers enjoy new commercials. It's possible that seeing one for the tenth time that week will prompt them to skip ahead. Maybe the solution is produce commercials more often...bigger ad budgets! Just kidding.
Posted by: Chris Clarke | March 22, 2007 09:10 PM