Hey, marketers, wouldn’t life be sweeter if you could sue prospects for not opening your letters or e-mails? Of course it’s an absurd prospect. But that’s the net effect of a lawsuit several media firms have filed against Sonicblue, whose ReplayTV program recording product includes a commercial-skipping feature.
The lawsuit seeks to stop Sonicblue from marketing the device. The plaintiffs are claiming that anything enabling a consumer to ignore sponsors amounts to theft of services.
Direct marketers know how to counteract this. It’s part of copywriting 101. Give the audience something worth watching and it will be watched. Messages should educate the targets. Entertain them. Ease their lives. Provide a direct benefit.
Television is all-too-ready to point to the Lyndon Johnson “Daisy” campaign ad and Apple’s “1984” commercial. Y’know, the ones that are touted as having tremendous recall despite having run only once — except for the six hundred times each has been featured on various “Best of Television Commercials” specials.
But the truth is those commercials are grabbers. If consumers are skipping today’s commercials, it’s because most of them are eminently skippable. A thousand lawsuits ain’t gonna change that – but one good course in ad writing might.
Network
