TiVo from AdZapper to Advertiser's New Best Friend

Thomas Hawk writes "A lot of noise has been made lately regarding TiVo's transformation from an ad zapper to Madison Avenue's new darling. In their first podcast ever, TiVo explains how they hope to redefine advertising in the age of the DVR through a customer centered approach. I'm not sure you are going to see TiVo changing their slogan to "we'll leave a light on for you," anytime soon, but with DVR penetration hitting mainstream how will their new initiatives change your TV viewing experience?"

Comments

Re:Ad quality

[kimvette]

It's an ad for a local discount furniture store (I'm in the Boston area)

Let me guess: Bob's Discount Furniture with the owner saying "at THEIR store? I doubt it!" in a Kennedy-style masshole accent? Yeah, those have got to rank with the most annoying advertisements ever.

At least the Jordan's advertisements are interesting and amusing - or used to be.

They've done a very good job of ensuring that I will never visit their stores, simply because their ads annoy me so much.

Agreed.

Can we add the annoying flooring/carpeting advertisements to this list too? When one of the big players featured their kid in their ad, it was a little annoying but cute - but within a couple of weeks EVERY flooring company in the Boston and South Shore area threw their kids in the ads (or rented kids) and one resorted to featuring his dog (I don't know - maybe he's gay or he couldn't get laid to save his life so he doesn't have kids to exploit for the ad?). They've been getting increasingly more annoying, to the point where if I were in the market for new carpeting or woodgrain floors, I absolutely would not patronize any of these companies who jumped on the "let's use our cute kid to sell flooring so we can act like a mom&pop outfit" bandwagon.

Bring back interesting, creative advertisements, disregarding political correctness. Take outpost.com's ads for example (if you remember them), VW's car bomber ad, the original trunk monkey ad (before it became generic stock video footage for any old car dealer who wanted to jump on that bandwagon). When trying to sell your product you have to make people to WANT to see your advertisements, not annoy the hell out of them so they turn to timeshifting with a VCR or MythTV DVR just so they can skip your painfully annoying ads. Some advertising agencies excel at creating ads which are memorable and serve as entertainment, creating a permanent positive imprint on viewers' minds with your brand name, and others excel at driving potential customers AWAY from doing business with you, to the point where they'll spend twice as much with your competitors because they've come to hate your guts and wish that you'd just drop dead.