Monday, June 27, 2005
TiVo and Television Advertising
I’m back from the Cannes Lions, where in addition to some excellent parties, I was pleasantly surprised at the strong showing of global work in all the categories. The Lions are still very creatively driven, and the 30-second spot is still king of the hill. The closing night and the film awards were attended by a record number of people, compared to other nights during the week.
As a marketer who is channel-agnostic, I can’t help but feel like we’re a bit delusional in thinking that the impact of the television commercial is going to continue to be the same as it was a few years ago. Many of you know this already, but the advertising revenues of Google and Yahoo! now are more than the combined advertising revenues of the three major US networks. Studies show that brand recognition from TV commercials is consistently deteriorating. Clients continue to move marketing spend across multiple channels, including traditional advertisers like P&G and Nestle. The rapid proliferation of DVRs like TiVo are making it harder for companies to even force-feed commercials. Recently, the New York Times reported that the number of DVRs in the US alone will double every three years, and predicts 40% penetration by the end of 2006. These are all relevant, scary facts.
But I’m also tired of people professing their love for other channels and dismissing the commercial. I think there’s a transitory step, and I think its essential. Commercials are one of our better tools to tell stories. They become part of urban culture when done properly, and in some special cases, represent legend-building venues for brands. Done right, they are arguably a better vehicle for emotional brand building than most other mediums. Of course, story-telling can be accomplished best through an integrated approach that involves the right experiences, messaging and context in various touch-points, but most large companies are too fragmented to truly get there in the near future.
So, what’s an ad agency and an advertiser to do?
One potential answer is in the rapidly growing market of DVRs. I’m thinking of TiVo as an example, and I have an idea that I’m going to call TiOns. (TiOn is short for a TiVo Coupon.) Here’s how it would work:
Let’s say you’re watching your TiVo’ed episode of Desperate Housewives that has a story line around weight and fitness issues. As you fast forward through the commercials, you’re suddenly alerted that one of the commercials has a “TiOn” available. It’s an ad for 24-hour fitness, and the TiOn says something like: Here’s a free month’s membership TiOn for the 24-hour Fitness at 220 Maple Street. Press Select to print. It so happens that 220 Maple Street is right down the block from you, and you’ve been thinking of signing up. The TiOn prints with a unique number on it, which is used by 24-hour Fitness to track their offer responses. The TiOn is printed on a tiny slip of paper that comes from a tightly wound roll inside the DVR which can be replaced, and each roll can print close to 500 TiOns.
The beauty of this approach is that the commercials could continue to be heavily “emotional,” and the salesy-pitch from the offer is layered on top, not in the commercial, but directly from the DVR. For locally-driven markets like new cars, the dealer’s advertising costs could go towards TiOns instead of bad local versions of the national commercial.
How could this happen?
First, I want TiVo and other DVR manufacturers to agree on a content tagging system that allows advertisers to purchase “tag time” whenever one of their commercials is on the air.
Next, I want the new DVRs to have coupon-printing capabilities, and the older ones’ firmware to be updated with an application that allows you to have TiVO to email you any tagged coupons.
Next, as part of their commercial spend, I want advertisers to buy tag-time with TiVo for that particular commercial, and every time it is on, a TiOn-enabled box will use its software to trigger the TiOn offer that’s relevant to the demographic data provided by the subscriber. It’s important that TiVo not over-charge for this service...they will make plenty of money on volume.
Finally, I want TiVo to sell two versions of their box. One, with no TiOns, for their normal price, and two, TiOn-enabled, available for free, or a very nominal fee. (You need this choice to satisfy some of the more vocal customers who will object heavily to the advertising-centricness of this approach. Plus, having a specific TiOn-based system will clear up any privacy issues, since people are choosing to get it.)
I really think this would work—and brand storytelling through commercials may just get some help with a new lease on life.