Commentary

Head-Scratching-Worthy TV Ad Moves

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 14, 2010

Some TV advertising moves can make you scratch your head.

On Monday, during an airing of "Maisy," an animated show for preschoolers on qubo, the ION Media Networks kids' programming block, there was a commercial for Bosley -- the hair replacement company.

Seems as though the media plan missed its intended target -- unless there are some 40- or 50-year-old men also watching the show at 9 a.m.

Inappropriate to the intended preschool audience? Not really. Just wasteful.

But all this makes one realize how much inefficiency is involved in TV. It gives those who are working for set-top-box addressable advertising -- as well as other new digital advertising efforts -- credit for pushing any ROI and other quantifiable metrics.

Much can be made of the "indecency" of TV language and content in ads and programming. But what about "waste" and outright mistakes?

This is not usually discussed much. Many TV conferences will display specific successful marketing/advertising moves, but there are fewer times when failing efforts are revealed. And as we all know, we can learn a lot from our mistakes.

Forget about growing hair. A couple of years ago before the economic collapse, high gasoline prices, and a Gulf oil spill,

Chevrolet wanted to tout its brands of SUVs. The car company invited fans to talk about SUVs and send off their own films to Chevy. Turns out some real directors produced some biting videos striking out against U.S. consumers' trend towards bigger cars. Probably not the message Chevy was looking for.

Weird stuff happens all the time. Learning comes from asking the right questions -- even when seemingly targeting five years olds who might need to grow some hair.

6 comments about "Head-Scratching-Worthy TV Ad Moves".

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Paul Van winkle from FUNCTION, July 14, 2010 at 11:57 a.m.

I'm in favor of discussing more failures. Those adept at learning (at all) learn more from failures than successes. Terrific book (synopsis) on the topic, The Logic Of Failure:
http://www.tnellen.com/ted/tc/logic.html
In fact, our entire collapsing economy and scuttled , toxic environment is a perfect example of a civilization that refused to review failures - but only aggrandized "success". And look where that's gotten us. A lot of bald, fat couch potatoes with high blood pressure walkin' around.
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Christine Williams from DirayTV, July 14, 2010 at 12:08 p.m.

Apparantly Wayne Friedman does not understand direct response. Simple DR principle is if the cost is right and enough qualified prospects takes action, the advertiser has met the ROI goal. AND...adults watch kids programming. A good way to reach adults with kids, is through kids programming. The tot is not the target demo, but the parent in the background surely is. And these parents are prime prospects for many DR advertisers.

James Birch from EmbracingMedia, July 14, 2010 at 1:29 p.m.

This is exactly why I started a company to deliver ads based on the actual viewer. So, if a 12 y/o is watching Monday Night Football, the beer, Viagra, etc. ads can be replaced with ones age appropriate like Pepsi or Wii. Our approach works across content sources such as cable, satellite, broadcast, IPTV, etc. It's passive (no sign in required) and 70% of consumers indicated their willingness to participate based on our patented services and incentives. Power to the people....

Bob Pares from TRA, July 14, 2010 at 4:54 p.m.

TV buying and selling is changing as 'new & improved' tools are available. If we showed the clients lists of 'here's where your ads actually ran' - the waste will appear WAY larger still - especially when compared to their 'true targets' of actual prospects/users, not just W19-49...age/sex targeting made sense decades ago, but is a big part of this inefficiency now.

Chris Nielsen from Domain Incubation, July 14, 2010 at 9:21 p.m.

Interesting comments, but I think the real problem that is not be addresses is that most clients are pretty clueless about what they are paying for. If you try to buy ad time on TV you will be hit with a lot of terms that you may never have heard before like "dayparts". Often you have to book ad space well in advance at high CPMs and don't really know when your ads will air with in a program, much less which program.

It's not waste if it results in sales, or if you simply don't know it's happening. If the campaign works, who needs to spend time looking for places to save a few bucks, or a few hundred bucks?

One thing I do for our clients though, is block the ads from showing during "paid programming". There has not been any data to support that playing our ads during their ads has any value. Your milage may vary... good luck!

Fraser E from Opinions expressed herein are solely my own, July 15, 2010 at 5:26 p.m.

Am I dating myself by pointing out that advertisers who buy dreck inventory at a ridiculous discount often get a better ROI than those who pay a premium to eliminate "waste"? The digerati all love to point and laugh at "wasteful" TV placements and the DR advertisers keep placing the buys and laughing all the way to the bank.