TiVo’s pairing with a major record label is creating a small but growing market for advertising on the mostly ad-free entertainment provider.
The five-year-old company has been providing technology
that allows subscribers to digitally record programs for later viewing and without commercials. Since last fall, a different type of commercial has been available to TiVo subscribers. It blends
entertaining or informative content with an advertising component that can be subtle or more noticeable, either sponsorship or tied to specific products like electronics or an automobile. And it’s
available only to TiVo subscribers, who have the option of turning it on, turning it off or repeating it.
This week, an advertainment campaign with Interscope Geffen A&M records launched that will
give TiVo subscribers a preview of a recording artist or group. The content includes music videos, rehearsal footage and casual interviews. This month’s artist is Counting Crows, whose material is
available to TiVo subscribers well before the release of its new album, Hard Candy. A new artist will follow every month for five months.
Previous campaigns have included similar content by
Grammy award-winner Sheryl Crow under the Best Buys brand, an in-depth look at the Adam Sandler movie Mr. Deeds for Sony Pictures and the rollout of a new Lexus model last fall.
TiVo sees
the campaigns as not only a new advertising form but also an extension of content available on its start-up menu that provides information on programming and an enhanced service.
Joe Miller,
director of marketing for the San Jose, Calif.-based company, sees potential for advertisers who think creatively and have content that would interest the typical TiVo subscriber: young, educated,
upper-income.
“We are looking for advertisers who are very creative and free from the confines of the 30-second spot,” Miller says. “This platform allows us to do much more.”
The Best Buys
content was tied into the company’s “Go Mobile” campaign that started in May. TiVo subscribers watching a 30-second spot on MTV would be offered a link to the enhanced content starring Sheryl Crow and
vignettes of varying length that feature products from the consumer-electronics chain. TiVo subscribers would be able to return to their programs where they left off after watching the Best Buys
content. Best Buys also offered a giveaway of Crow’s new CD.
Key to the Best Buys content was a non-traditional approach to advertising for consumers who could turn it off at any time. The Best
Buys ads were tongue-in-cheek and of varying lengths. The content was also available on the start-up menu.
Advertisers can judge the return-on-advertising almost immediately, which TiVo claims is
television’s first ROA metric.
“You can find out what percentage of people watch,” Miller says. “Did they bail out of half way or watch it all, and did they watch it again? It’s a report card, and
not just of how often it ran.”
A media analyst says TiVo has gained some traction with the campaigns, and the future could be bright from an advertising standpoint.
“They’re clearly developing a
bit of a track record,” says Marla Backer, senior vice president of Brean, Murray and Co. “Over time, there will be a huge demand.”
Backer says it takes time to develop a new advertising medium and
it’s even harder with a difficult advertising environment.
She says that because TiVo subscribers have to choose the content instead of having it passively play on their televisions, advertisers
must have a different approach.