Mar 21, 2007

Ad Pods

No, it's not a science fiction movie about art directors with identical facial hair.
It's what media people call those valleys where they run all the TV spots during prime time.
They've been getting bigger and providing everyone with a new reason why TV commercials are less effective these days. (Not to mention providing media buyers with a reason why you shouldn't have to pay as much for one.)

But as I TiVo'd through my nightly dose of television, it dawned on me that network promos and movie trailers must make up at least 50% of the pod content. So that commercials for everything from Miller Lite to Extra Strength Tylenol are competing against teasers for the next episode of Lost or a trailer for the latest Owen Wilson movie. (Most movies these days feature Owen Wilson, it seems. Don't they?) And it further dawned on me that for most people, the Lost teasers and Owen Wilson movies are far more interesting and relevant than 99% of the product advertising out there.

Which is yet another reason people are tuning them out.

2 comments:

Davis Freeberg said...

TiVo has done research on the number of users opting into the ads that they run on their box and they've found that the high end luxury goods have about a 10% opt in rate, but that the movie trailers have an over 50% opt in rate. That's pretty high considering that people actually have to go out and choose to see the commercial vs. having it just show up during a commercial break. I think that part of the reason why people likes these spots are because movies appeal to every demographic whereas an ad for a new car or financial services leaves a lot of people bored because they are not in the market for the services. If the ads that we see in the pods were more personalized, I think people wouldn't hate the commercials as much.

Anonymous said...

“Owen Wilson movies are far more interesting and relevant...”

Please take that back.