• by Seana Mulcahy , August 8, 2005

Let's face it, it's an on-demand world we live in today. As media/advertising/marketing experts, we jump through hoops to cut through the clutter. In fact, the phrase makes us cringe.

Let's do a quick poll: How many of you have a TiVo or digital video recorder (DVR)? How about an iPod? Or perhaps you have satellite radio? You must have customized your preferences on a Web site or two. Anyone?

Some say these devices spoil us. I say they have become a way of life. This way of life has also become a nightmare to many advertisers. How many articles have you read about the threat of ad skipping (I've even written some myself)? As a consumer, ad skipping is a cool function. It really is. Maybe I am oversimplifying it, but if someone doesn't want to see my ad, then why should I waste a single impression on them? Isn't that why CPC (cost per click) deals are an easy sell? We love paying for the "right" traffic versus all traffic.

I've also written several pieces that I hoped served as a wake up call. We need to respect our prospects and consumers. Shoving blinking, flashing, noisy pixels streaming everywhere is not a solution. We need to realize that consumers are on overload. They process more information more than ever. Catching them in the right mind-set only offers you the space of a sound byte. Your ad had better be in the right time or the right place. Or else, you ask? They might hate you, never buy from you, warn their friends about you, refer to you in nasty ways on their blogs, or worse... ad skip you. Gasp.

I know what you are thinking. This is basic behavior we all learned in kindergarten. We ll look around you, dear readers. How many bad ads are cluttering the digital space? How annoying is it to have something stream audio by itself? It's particularly nice when you are online while on a conference call. That happened to me the other day. I went to IM someone back while on the phone (a typical daily habit) and some ringtone ad with rap bellowed out from my PC. Try explaining that one, LOL.

The other day I was reading (a hard copy of) BusinessWeek. I was shocked to learn about a company called Visible World. It was referred to as "the antidote for ad skipping." According to the article, the company creates technology that digitally customizes ad content to reach fine slices of the broadcast and TV market.

I needed to think about that for a bit. This technology has a lot of up sides. It allows advertisers to customize messages in a variety of ways. One in particular is geo-targeting. Changes can be made on the fly eliminating heavy production costs. Offers can be placed in any given ad. Umm hello? Will someone please tell the TV people there has been a digital solution out there for years now? It's called interactive media. However, many investors are saying that Visible World is a "solution." Well kudos, but we were here first.