DVRs Don’t Have to Spell Death to TV Ads

Posted on by Chief Marketer Staff

Television stations can blunt the ad-skipping damage from digital video recorders (DVRs) such as TiVo by creating spots that elicit a strong emotional response from the audience.

That was one of the findings from a Frank N. Magid Associates survey released at last week’s Promax, a television marketing conference. The Magid team found that DVR users will take their finger off the fast-forward button if an ad features humor, riveting graphics (not to be confused with MTV-style quick cuts and other modern special effects), a product people are interested in buying, or a program viewers have an interest in watching.

“Spots can no longer survive on clinical copy and cover video,” said Kurt Bartolich, senior consultant for marketing and brand management, in his presentation at the conference. “Every word and every visual is under the microscope like never before.”

He suggested marketers fast-forward through their ads themselves to see what kind of a response they evoke. “Think carefully about the production values,” he said. “Understand the technology. What happens to the TV screen in fast-forward mode? How does it compress or cover parts so it fits? Different DVR brands can cover different parts of the screen in different ways. Think about [using] the center of the screen.”

On the length of commercials, Magid found little difference in viewers’ recall of 15- or 30- second spots. How often the commercials ran and how relevant they were to the audience mattered more than how long they were. And the more laserlike the focus of each ad the more likely the viewer would retain either the brand name or the category.

“Do not introduce conflicting ideas,” said Barbara Sobocinski, senior consultant for marketing and brand management. For example, an ad mentioning simply that Bayer aspirin prevents heart attacks scored high.

Also important was on which program the commercial aired. “There is more of a synthesis between the message and the program,” Sobocinski said. She pointed to the relevancy of the paid listings that appear alongside Google search strings as an excellent model for juxtaposition content and advertising such that a search for “television sets” bring up a list of sites that sell televisions in the right-hand column besides the search engine.

The full presentation can be downloaded at www2.promax.tv/magid_survey/home.asp after July 1.

More

Related Posts

Chief Marketer Videos

by Chief Marketer Staff

In our latest Marketers on Fire LinkedIn Live, Anywhere Real Estate CMO Esther-Mireya Tejeda discusses consumer targeting strategies, the evolution of the CMO role and advice for aspiring C-suite marketers.



CALL FOR ENTRIES OPEN



CALL FOR ENTRIES OPEN