Forget Interactive TV -- TiVo Goes For Interactive Commercials
from the spam-me-please dept
TiVo has always experimented with ways to to update commercial advertising for an era in which everyone can skip commercials. Among the methods they've tried is the ability to let people "click" for more info on certain commercials they find interesting. It's sort of the weak equivalent of an online ad. It's not clear how many people have actually clicked on any of these ads (best guess: not many), but that hasn't stopped TiVo from trying to expand the program to make it slightly more interactive. The latest addition is that TiVo users will be able to click a button on those commercials to send the advertiser personal info in order to be added to a junk mail list. Somehow, this seems even less likely to get usage. First, you have to convince people who are fast forwarding through a commercials that it's interesting enough to not just zip through it. Second, the ad has to be interesting enough to get people to want to "find out more" immediately, rather than just being satisfied from the info they get in the ad. Third, the users have to understand that they can click through on the ad for more info (and then proactively do so). Finally, the users have to be willing to send their personal data to some advertising firm in order to get on some advertising mailing list, while still hoping the data isn't misused. It seems like the type of thing that advertisers would love -- but did anyone from TiVo stop to consider whether or not anyone would actually use such a feature?
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Bravo Tivo!
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Tivo - Service your customers!
In this vein, make ads user-centric. I'd like to see a feature where the user could black/white list ads. If I can skip all tampon ads yet see anything from Sci-fi, that's utility to me (the user) and makes me feel like I'm getting a service. Tivo could use this black/white list data, sanitized of course, available to advertisers, for a price or whatever. Win win.
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Re: Tivo - Service your customers!
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Re: Tivo - Service your customers!
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Re: Tivo - Service your customers!
Further, the hardware costs Tivo a lot less than what they "sell" it for. How much less would be interesting to know, but I would guess the subscription fee is designed to payoff any rebates in less than a year OR Tivo is getting a lot of money from sources other than subscribers.
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Re: Tivo - Service your customers!
Here's another thought...Since advertisers pay google for click throughs for their ads...why doesn't Tivo charge advertisers for click throughs that Tivo users do, and a portion of that fee gets credited to the individual Tivo user's $12.95 monthly fee. This would create an incentive for users to actually "Click for More Info" because it will lower their monthly fee, and potentially pay for it completely.
Maybe even give the Tivo user a short quiz about the commercial, and only credit the user's account if they get the answers right - so the advertiser will know for sure that the whole purpose of their ad (that it sinks into the viewers mind) was obtained.
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TiVo stats
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Hardware is strictly a Sony/Phillips, etc. deal; all discounts on hardware are based on kickbacks to those hardware dealers from DirecTV or whomever.
They also do not get advertising revenue, at least for the ads that are buried in the broadcast content (they do get revenue from the stuff accessible only through their menues). Tivo makes money on the Tivo service subscription fees. Period. Their only relation to "service" of customers is indirect, in that the actions they take will eventually expand or contract their subscriber base. The exception is the "click through" wherein they get a cut... so having interactive adds (profiled/filtered or not) can only be upside to them.
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