Commentary
Trick People Into Watching Ads: Fewer, Better, Relevant
- by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, September 17, 2015
I saw a bunch of commercials all in a row last Tuesday, broadcast live. Remarkable!
At the time, I remembered thinking that the premiere of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is sure attracting a lot more younger-skewing first-night advertisers than the typical Letterman program did.
But then I remembered, I hadn’t seen live Letterman commercials for years. He was permanently DVRed and from that thought, it occurred to me that I probably avoid far more commercials than I see.
It’s a game advertisers play with consumers. We aren’t that easy to get, although, but there are more and more attempts.
Ad blockers are another obstacle for content makers. AdAge.com recently pointed out that watching streaming versions of network shows has now become a bad business because ad blockers can eliminate all those commercials, too, just like your DVR, with your help, can.
“A streaming episode of ‘Food Fighters’ on NBC.com recently began with a 30-second spot for Verizon and threaded in commercials for Bank of America, Fiat, Amazon, Microsoft, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ Ford, Pristiq, Subaru, Hotels.com, Old El Paso, Straight Talk Wireless, Bon Appetit Pizza, Total Wireless, Lyrica, Verizon again and other NBC programming,” AdAge reported. “Viewers using AdBlock could watch the hourlong episode without seeing any of the ads.”
This isn’t the huge problem is may at first appear because a lot of consumers access networks via TV Everywhere apps, or on connected TVs and that pretty much stops the blocking. But it’s a big enough problem that CBS.com and Hulu and others block the blockers.
If you’re using one, those content providers will advise you to disable your blocker and then come back to watch.
A better solution might be to cut viewers a break. That many commercials during that “Food Fighters” episode just compels a sensible viewer to rebel. Online content providers could limit their damage if they showed the slightest concern about limiting our exposure.
That’s why I doubt there’s much of an upside by content provider to ask viewers to whitelist them so ad blockers won’t stop their blurbs. This approach appeals to my sense of humor. It also reveals publishers’ sense of vanity. One of the guiding true-isms of advertising has to be that, generally but overwhelmingly, people don’t care about your sales pitch enough to do something to facilitate it.
Especially when, as a result of your fair-is-fair acquiescence, you’re greeted with an armada of advertising.
As ad blocking now extends Apple’s new iOS 9 and to Android mobile phones and tablets, it threatens to put an advertising lid on mobile just as watching video via smartphones is at a crescendo. The way for ads to stay unblocked is to make better ads, target them better and quit sticking them, in profusion, where they don’t belong. I’d never say never.
But I will say, regrettably, none of that is likely to happen.
pj@mediapost.com
P.J. Bednarski has written for MediaPost since 2012 on media and marketing topics. He can be reached at pj@mediapost.com
Better ads are still unsolicited ads. Targeted ads are still unwanted interruptions (let me search your ad online when I decide I'm a likely target, not when you insist). Ads not stuck where they don't belong are still intrusive ads. Netflix is a Godsend. The audio mute button is everyone's best friend during live sports.
Perhaps the industry is getting back to its roots. Early radio and TV was great at introducing and integrating the sponsor and easing the audience into the content/program. The sponsored segment would typically speak to the program and the audience watching - like the sponsor was right there with you. Today, it's just a barrage of noise and clutter and the sponsor is stomping on content vs. presenting and integrating. Back to the future...
Douglas, one of the most important functions of advertising to to make consumers aware of new products or improvements to established ones and, in some cases, to new uses---in the marketer's opinion, for their products. If there were no ads how would you know about these possibilities---except by word-of-mouth endorsements? Also, how many marketers would develop new products and services and then just sit back --without promoting them---and wait until consumers found out about them and decided---based on what?---to buy them?
Of course we can complain about lousy ads, offensive ads, too many ads, etc. ---which is nothing new, though it is true that there are more ads than before. But most people have ways to avoid ads, not just by "zapping" them on their DVRs, but also by changing channels, leaving the room, muting the sound, or, simply, not paying attention. If a few people hate ads so much that they watch Netflix and only that, plus never listen to the radio, never look at a magazine, never read a newspaper and block every ad on their digital screens, so be it. But this is an extreme minority position and, I suspect that people who claim to be in this very small group are actually "closet" ad watchers---for some ads--- who just wont admit it.
well said