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Tivo Plans Commercials On Demand
MCSqrd writes "News.com reports that Tivo will soon feature interactive ads that apparently link from ordinary television commercials. Viewers can activate the link and view extended, interactive content about the product being advertised.
Tivo hopes to 'tune in' to a way to keep advertisers on their side since the idea of TV commercials being made obsolete because of PVRs has made them an enemy to marketing departments everywhere.
Is anyone else reminded of the blipverts from the Max Headroom series?"
Why would you link from commercials that nobody watches if they have a TiVo anyways?
Now if only Tivo got some google sense and tied their ads into keywords (which could be easily fetched on most channels supporting captions).
Googled has proven that targeted ads work, why not try it in Tivo.
They already did this, I believe, at least once last year. When a certain car commercial came on (can't remember which one.. maybe M.B. or V.W.) it went to an extended commercial if you wanted by hitting the thumbs up button. Not much to talk about really... the tivo is set up to save messages and commercials from the air at 3:00am on scheduled days.
There are other types of commercials too... for instance right now there are a couple of previews for Dawn of the Dead. They are just extending this out to more non-entertainment products too. You don't have to watch them if you don't want to.
Why don't you embrace your slashbotness instead of living in a dreamworld?
Imagine this:
Instead of 30 second commercials you fast forward through, all the commercials were on your Tivo as well. and tivo only recorded commercials for products that you liked (tivo commercial suggestions). That way, you don't HAVE to watch a commercial to watch a show... but Tivo makes money (and stays in business) so that I can continue to get their service while not getting commericals.... I like this a LOT
And if Tivo can make a little money from the Ad firms without impacting my viewing habits , then so be it.
The only problem I might have with it is if my Tivo had the wrong idea of what I liked and didn't like. What a horrible time I might have if my Tivo recorded only ads for feminine hygiene products....
Damn, that's a good idea. Full length trailers stored on your Tivo, so you can pick through what's playing at your local theatre without having to go hunting around on the web, waiting for the trailers to download. I wish I had that capability on my ReplayTV :(
DirecTiVo's already have a video on demand feature for Starz movie channel subscribers... basically it automatically records all first-run movies on Starz and places them in a special section of the interface.
It's much easier for TiVo to broadcast content than to stream it over the Internet... just like how they push the Showcases out over a late-night infomerical on the Discovery Channel.
Though a lot of people like to complain about the "yellow star" ads, I have found several of them quite useful. Even the direct promotions. A good example: There is a TiVo PVR that will burn directly to DVD. For a couple of weeks they had a yellow star ad that included 4 minute and 1 minute walkthroughs about the features and benefits of the unit. Pretty standard. But there was a third link which requested product literature. I liked the product, so I requested the lit. Got it a week later, read through it, and made a purchase decision.
It's horribly efficient. No "type in this 30-character URL", no "type in all your mailing info here", just push select and voila. This isn't the first time I've done it... TiVo offered a promotional DVD to give to your friends to tell them about TiVo. They made it available online, and via yellow star. Clicked, got the DVD. No hassles. No typing. Easy. And even after opting in (you can opt in, neutral, or out) to data collection in my personal preferences, I receive no junk mail or spam whatsoever from these companies. I get what I ask for, and nothing else.
This could be a phenomenal money maker for TiVo if done right. If I'm interested in your product, and you make information gathering as easy as pushing the "Thumbs Up" while watching the commercial (ala TiVoMatic icon), I guarantee I watch your 3- or 4-minute promotional video. Everyone wins. It helps the sponsor promote their product, and it does so without pissing off the end-user, because they request the video, they're not force fed. Now it becomes a convenience instead of an annoyance.
I hope the rest of the marketing world takes a good hard look at this business model... make your information easily accessible, don't beat your target audience over the head with it.
I gave TiVo a suggestion when I first got my TiVo and heard all of the "TiVo will die" comments everywhere. My suggestion was that TiVo should allow the thumbing of commercials. Then they could sell that information to advertisers so they'd know what commercials that people thought were good.
This would allow me to let Quizno's know that I can't stand there singing hair balls.
Right now they have some trailers once in a while, but I am sure Tivo has to be paid for them to push it out there.
Too bad... maybe Tivos will continue to evolve and they will become the set to interative box we have always read about... able to get all the movie times, buy tickets, order chineese food.. whatever. Maybe when everyone has broadband...
Why don't you embrace your slashbotness instead of living in a dreamworld?
One of the best ones I saw was for the Nissan 350Z. In the Showcase it said to press 'select' and they'd mail me a DVD of the Z racing around Prague. Sure enough, a bit later a DVD showed up at my door after simply pressing a button on my remote.
Now that's a powerful car commercial.
tbdean
It's been true enough in the world of sports for quite some time already. If you ever watch old replays on ESPN Classic, you can see the gradual intrusion of advertising into the sports arena.
It used to be the Sugar Bowl. Now it's the Nokia Sugar Bowl. Was the Fiesta Bowl. Now it's the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Don't ask fans of the old Candlestick Park what they think of the arena's "new" name. That's just the tip of the iceberg there. What about NASCAR? Is there anyone watching NASCAR who doesn't feel off-kilter when they can't say "Winston Cup" anymore? Does anybody remember that, rather than the name of an award/trophy, they are talking about a vendor when they say that?
Media advertising has been with us for some time, lurking in the shadows of consciousness. The seminal symbol of sports events, the Goodyear Blimp, is itself a giant advertising billboard flying from one sporting/concert event to another. Watch any televised World Cup soccer match, where instead of commercial breaks people may take a trip to the bathroom or kitchen during (and miss), you are now subconciously enticed into viewing an advertising logo every 12.5 seconds when you peer at the score or time remaining. Need I now point out the even more incredibly intrusive AOL yellow "dude" that runs onto the football field to display the first down yellow line? (That one killed me the first time I saw it...talk about marketing)
The more DVRs like ReplayTV and Tivo make the rounds, the more this sort of advertising will integrate itself into the programming itself. If not in some blatant smack of product placement ("Vote for the next American Idol by sending VOTE with your AT&T Wireless cell phone"), then certainly by some subtle logo or "bug" placed in such a way that you can't exclude the logo with any technological means without severly impacting the watchability of the programming itself.
I wouldn't be surprised if you don't see television programming deriving someday to the "watch-per-view" format that many premium websites go lately which require you to sit and watch a 30sec commercial before proceeding to the next page/download/etc. With the convergence of digital media and control devices (remotes, etc), it's not unlikely you'd get some method where you must watch a commercial and key a code on your remote to continue with the show. Incredibly invasive -- yes -- effective to force people to watch a commercial -- absolutely. How many people could they force to sit through mandatory commercials to watch the Friends finale in May?
Londovir
I'm pretty sure I'm seeing the last days of television (as I knew it and literally) when I see this stuff, because all it does it annoy the hell out of me.
I would so much rather have product placement (like a Ford car chase in a recent Alias), than the crappy 'splash screens' that are pushing shows that I will never watch. Ever.
BTW, Ford seems to be everywhere these days. Tivo had a clip on the GT 40, couple of minutes and kinda cool. On American Idol (don't get me started, I'm a musician and married - guess what won?), there was a 'video' that was the most blatant product placement I've ever seen. It was a 2 plus minute Ford commercial that made me not want a Ford and hate all on the screen, because it was so obvious 'THIS IS WHAT WE ARE SELLING'.
I can appreciate advertising. I deal with marketing my company -- I know that eyeballs count. But, (and I don't need a 4 year worthless degree to know this) the first rule is 'Do no harm.' Just like a doctor, but for your product's image.
Give me something new, and something that doesn't insult my intelligence (or lack thereof), don't play it into the ground (do you want to hear Freebird, Stairway or American Pie again?) and I may consider your product. At least I won't add it to the brain 'Hate File' and refuse to buy it for my irrational dislike of your marketing. People are irrational (that's also the first rule. See?)
And seriously, the all-obscuring splash screens will insure that I will: Be pissed off at whatever you're pushing, Be pissed off at your station/channel/advertiser, and look for my show(s) on the web (bye ad dollars), DVD (see you sponsors) or give it up for good (Oh NO!).
Sleep on it. And Ford? Way to get me to complement and complain about you on Slashdot. Well played, sir. I'm still not buying an Escort.