• by Wayne Friedman , May 7, 2007

Advertisers can learn a lot from DVR ad-skipping.

In the paper "How the Digital Video Recorder Affects Traditional Television Advertising," which appears in the Journal of Advertising, Kenneth C. Wilbur, a marketing professor in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, says digital technology can offer specific research on commercial avoidance that could not be determined in previous years.

"For the first time, advertisers and ad agencies can learn when and why viewers avoid some ads, and how to mitigate ad avoidance in the future," Wilbur says. He also notes what TV sellers have been saying for some time--viewer ad-avoidance will be priced into new TV advertising marketplaces. For example, marketers will pay higher rates for better pod positions.

In addition, Wilbur found that "DVR adoption decreases consumer use of other ad-avoidance strategies--like flipping channels or going to the bathroom--in favor of using the DVR to skip ads."

Overall, he notes that the TV business is still a good one. After factoring in inflation, TV ad revenues are basically flat over the past five years, even with a shift of money from broadcast to cable. Despite higher rates of growth in other media, TV received 55% of all new advertising dollars in 2006.

In the new digital world, nearly 20% of U.S. TV viewers own a DVR. Wilbur joins the chorus of other TV ad creative professionals who say advertisers and their agencies should make their spots more engaging, so consumers don't reach for the fast-forward button.