Marketers trying to break through the ad clutter with their commercial messages are engaging in a new advertising trend in which smaller is apparently better. They are using new, shorter TV ads that
last only five seconds and are placed at the end of regular commercial breaks. The goal of these so-called "mini-ads" is to overcome the effects of digital video recorders (DVRs) that let consumers
zap through ads. They take advantage of the fact that when a user stops fast-forwarding on many DVRs, the machine backs up a few seconds to compensate for the user's reaction time. "As you're getting
right back to the show's content, (the DVR) does that little jump-back feature which grabs you a few seconds back into the commercial," says Tim Spengler, national broadcast director for Initiative
Media. "That's fertile ground for advertisers because it's TiVo-proof." Two marketers currently experimenting with the mini-ads are Honda and America Online. "We're always looking for things that will
be TiVo-proof," says Brett Bender, management supervisor at Honda ad agency RPA. "You obviously can't communicate as much as you can in a 30-second ad, but your dollars get extended." Advertising
critics, however, say the mini-commercials just add to what they see as an already too-cluttered ad environment. "People have TiVos because they're fed up with ads," says Gary Ruskin, head of
watchdog group Commercial Alert. "These mini-ads are just going to make people more annoyed and drive more people away.
advertisement
advertisement
"
Read the whole story at USA Today »