Television Marketing Survey

11 October 2006 4 Comments

Call me late to the game, but I was poking around on Ad: Tech’s blog last night and came across this television marketing survey from back in July.

1. 33 percent want TV-like features of their PCs
2. 15 percent want them on their cell phone
3. 46 percent use their DVRs to skip commercials
4. 58 percent use their DVR to record programming
5. 35 percent use their DVR to pause live TV
6. 49 percent use their DVR every day
7. 63 percent use it once a week
8. 55 percent fast forward through commercials
9. Interestingly, 15 percent use thir DVRs to rewind and watch commecials
10. 42 percent use free video on demand
11. 59 percent use the DVR to access free local information

Marketing has changed a lot over the years since “Where’s the beef?” put Wendy’s hamburgers on the map. Companies are buying brand marketing in the context of television shows and movies, and according to this survey that seems appropriate. The first time I recall seeing this tactic was in season 1 of 24 when I noticed Dell computers were all over the CTU office. The following season there was a plethora of Cisco VoIP phones. As a consumer (and DVR owner), I usually skip through the commercials (Hey, when there’s 20 minutes of commercials for an hour show, fast forwarding through them allows me to squeeze four shows into the same three hour time period I would normally only get three shows into!).

Marketers, take note. Television advertising is a dying breed when done the same way that it has always been done. The current model of advertising is an antiquated 20 year old model that has served its time. This is the 21st century and DVR owners put companies on their TV viewing “Do Not Call” list everyday.

If I had to make my own non-expert analysis of these numbers, I’d say that

The model of television advertising is dying,
The trend is toward internet advertising as consumer demand for tight integration between PC and TV continues to develop, and
Phones are phones, not MP3 players, or televisions and most consumers probably don’t use most of the “bling” in modern cellphones – therefore we believe in the Separation of High Media and Phones

I’m not an expert on this stuff. I’m a tech guy, not a marketer. But I wonder what others think about the state of current (traditionalistish) advertising and marketing.

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Tags: Advertising

4 Responses to “Television Marketing Survey”

Christina 18 October 2006 at 9:47 am #

I write a lot of MarCom, and worked closely with an online marketing agency for many years — so my views may be skewed in favor of online…

Certainly, if everyone has TiVo, the TV commercial as we know it might be a dying breed. But how many folks do you know who watch the Superbowl for the ads? I know most of my friends do.

The thing about online advertising that has traditional media beat hands down is the tracking, data, referrals, and personal relationships that online can create almost instantly. There’s also an amazing ROI on a successful viral campaign, and the cost of online marketing is nowhere near as high as traditional media. I thnk, though, that television is perfectly capable of adapting. It will be interesting to see how it changes. I’d think more advertising will try to drive traffic to online microsites, websites, and ads, to catch that data as quickly as possible. my two cents.
Aaron Brazell 18 October 2006 at 10:29 am #

Christina: good input. I think the SuperBowl is an anomaly because it is only one event. How many other events do you know of that people tune in for the commercials? Also, TiVos are not everywhere but the uptake is increasing and so you have the law of diminishing returns coming into play. Sure, conventional advertising isn’t dead, but it is not nearly as beneficial as it once was and a year, two years from now, it won’t be as beneficial as it is today.
Christina 18 October 2006 at 9:47 am #

I write a lot of MarCom, and worked closely with an online marketing agency for many years — so my views may be skewed in favor of online…

Certainly, if everyone has TiVo, the TV commercial as we know it might be a dying breed. But how many folks do you know who watch the Superbowl for the ads? I know most of my friends do.

The thing about online advertising that has traditional media beat hands down is the tracking, data, referrals, and personal relationships that online can create almost instantly. There’s also an amazing ROI on a successful viral campaign, and the cost of online marketing is nowhere near as high as traditional media. I thnk, though, that television is perfectly capable of adapting. It will be interesting to see how it changes. I’d think more advertising will try to drive traffic to online microsites, websites, and ads, to catch that data as quickly as possible. my two cents.
Aaron Brazell 18 October 2006 at 10:29 am #

Christina: good input. I think the SuperBowl is an anomaly because it is only one event. How many other events do you know of that people tune in for the commercials? Also, TiVos are not everywhere but the uptake is increasing and so you have the law of diminishing returns coming into play. Sure, conventional advertising isn’t dead, but it is not nearly as beneficial as it once was and a year, two years from now, it won’t be as beneficial as it is today.