This morning I was reading my trusty New York Times and I came across a full page ad for the Jay Leno Show. Hoping to post an image of the ad in this post, try finding an ad like that in an internet search . . . Anyway, right in the middle of the page it reads “DVR-PROOF programming year-round” and immediately started wondering where NBC is going with this. First of all, it’s an ad aimed at advertisers, and if that weren’t obvious from that line, the next line “Live ads in Leno generate 152% higher brand recall than similar branded content in primetime,” well that removes any lingering doubt. Second, and more importantly, the DVR-PROOF label is an obvious reaction to the popularity of TIVO and other Digital Video Recording devices that are in many ways the evolution of the VCR.
I have seen a number of articles about how the success of the DVR means more people are able to fast forward through ads, and the advertisers are not only not getting the “impressions” they are paying for and that makes it hard to get to their customers.
So it’s a clear case of needing to rethink “how” to connect with the customer.
Some marketers have resorted to integrating their products into the programs, where the stars are using the products, and that seems pretty smart to me. Recently the American Idol program had the remaining contestants on the show do a spot for Ford that aired on the show, and that seemed like a good idea, but not DVR-PROOF. I am a little surprised some haven’t experimented with ads that work in both fast forward and regular speed – you could have a large stationary picture of the product (like a Pepsi billboard) in the background so when the person fast forwards, the person still gets the impression, and there are probably even more clever ways than that. I think that would be clever and effective.
But DVR-PROOF sounds like NBC is trying to keep TV in the 20th century and we have seen a number of efforts like that in the past (like forcing YouTube to remove their content) and that is just not smart. There may be some calculated gamble that the kind of people who will watch this new show aren’t really the DVR crowd, but the simple point is that they shouldn’t resist the DVR trend, denying it won’t make it go away.
NBC needs to figure out how to help their advertisers get to their markets in a post DVR world.
That’s what I think.
-Ric
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