TiVo Says Choose Your Own Damn Commercials
from the gimmicks-instead-of-usefulness? dept
For all the hype and talk over the impact of DVR users skipping ads, you have to give TiVo credit for being extremely willing to experiment with trying to change the traditional TV commercial. Over the years, they've come up with a variety of experiments -- some much more clever than others. It still seems like their first attempt was one of the most intriguing. Back in 2001, the company offered a sweepstakes for a new Lexus, where contestants needed to answer a bunch of questions where the answers were hidden in a variety of Lexus commercials. Conveniently, TiVo would automatically record all of the necessary commercials and store them in a separate area. Since then, not all of the experiments have been that inspired. There were forced recordings of shows, the ability to "click-through" commercials to get more info on the product being advertised, and the especially questionable plan to let viewers automatically forward their personal info to advertisers if they wanted more info about a product. TiVo's latest moves play on the growing trend of TV execs to (finally!) recognize that ads are "content" too. Instead of just pushing commercials to users or letting them click through for more info, TiVo users will have the ability to choose their own ending to a commercial for new Sony TVs. The idea is that men get to watch one commercial while women get to watch another. If anything, it's really not that different than the earlier "click through for more info" ads -- but with a bit of choice and a male/female gimmick. The company is also getting ready to roll out "commercials on demand" that will allow users to sometimes select the commercials they'd like to see -- though, the details on that plan are pretty hazy at this point. Again, it's not clear that any of these experiments will actually work, but it's still good to see the industry experiment a little bit.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Oh, wait . . .
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: sexism?
By allowing a man to see a Sony TV ad targeted to him in a way that may make him more likely to buy it--and by allowing a woman the same, isn't sexist, it's just good business.
I would love Google to get in on the cable TV ad scene with Google CableAds, targeted to the end user of the connection. If Cox Communications knows I'm a 35 year old male, living alone, they can't guarantee I'll like all the ads they could send me, but they COULD AVOID sending me commercials selling tampons & douches or Depends undergarments. Think of it. TV commercials that have an order of magnitude greater likelyhood that the advertiser will reach its target audience.
Recall the Carl's Jr "If it doesan't get all over the place" ad campaign. So many of my friends would comment about how lame it was. Later I read that it was a very popular ad among 20-something males--their precise target market. Right on, Carl! So Cox allows me to fill out a questionnaire. From that they could program my personal feed to show me the commercials relating to the crap I'd be willing to buy and avoid the wasted bits and bandwidth showing me stuff I'll never be in the market for, like Maybelline products.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: sexism?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Brilliant!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
love my tivo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't really mind commercials - in concept. The problem is how long they run and how frequently. I was watching something on CBS last night and felt like there was more commercial time than show time. I didn't turn the TV on to watch an hour worth of commercials during a two hour show.... not worth it.
Thank gosh for TV on demand :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I won't watch movies on commercial TV AT ALL.
And for this semi-basketball fan, CBS ruined their chances of having me watch the games by going to commercial for EVERY. SINGLE. STOPPAGE. of play! It was ridiculous.
TV shows can do whatever they want to get people to watch commercials, but for me, the only commercials I watch are when the clicker falls too far from my reach or the batteries go dead.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Only 6 months?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
like ad sense on google
I know that google's ad sense program has got me to click on advertising about 100 percent more often than those dumb flashing banner ads for things I'll never be interested in. Maybe this is the first step in the TiVolution of commercial content. I would most certainly be more interested in a commercial if it spoke to an interest rather than blasting me with hype about something I have no intent in caring about.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
my tivo
Wouldn't it be a good idea to have every commercial on TV today be an on demand type commercial? It would force advertiser to stop being lazy and actually make them try and convince us why we should by their product instead of their competitors. Today most commercials for sub $50 products are just trying to shove their products in our face so that when we get to the store we remember their name.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
commercials
I sometimes watch TV that I have recorded on my tivo, and almost always skip the commercials. The only exception to that is the superbowl (tm?), when i skipped through the game to watch the fun and imaginative commercials.
Please, in the future, require that your advertisers to come up with content that is at least as entertaining as the show. those of us with tivos will be more likely to watch the commercials that you make your livelyhood on, and possibly even more apt to BUY what we see in the commercial.
See how that works? No tricks needed. No expensive gimmicks required. No bullshit legislation wanted. No need to attempt to cripple our ability to skip commercials. Just content, commercial or otherwise, that is entertaining to watch, doesn't insult the intelligence of the viewer, and is something that we don't have to ever think about. After all, that's why we own TVs.
Sincerely,
somebody who will never buy products from companies with annoying commercials
[ link to this | view in chronology ]