• Ad Age, Monday, April 9, 2007 12 PM

Commercial ratings--which will emerge in the U.S. next month and could be part of the 2008 upfront--will give TV networks a much stronger incentive to fix their business model. It rewards marketers whose ads people love, and penalizes those who produce ads that viewers hate.

The reason: once networks start getting paid based on how many people actually watch the ads vs. how many watch the shows, they'll want to ensure that each spot helps hold the audience for the next. And the networks will have a strong interest in passing those incentives along to marketers.

In an ideal world, this would lead networks to start charging variable rates to advertisers, based on how much people like their ads. Better still, as a consumer-engagement tactic, consumers could vote on how well they like ads, "American Idol" style, knowing their votes will reward ads they like and punish the ones they don't. But getting industry consensus on a statistically valid system for rating how likable an ad is--be it via copy-testing services or text messages--would be difficult.

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