Marketers walk a fine line when they create and present advertising. On the one hand, it is important to grasp the attention of as many people as possible with the intended message; on the other, the message cannot feel as though it is being forced down viewers’ throats. Extraneous, over-the-top advertisements, whether they be high-volume commercials or flashing pop-up ads, tend to turn people off of the featured product or service. At the very least they spur potential consumers to turn off the radio, change the TV channel, or click to the next internet page—none of which lead to desired buying behavior. With this in mind, advertisers must improve the efficacy of the mediums they use, and many are already exploring their options.
It is no secret that traditional television advertising has been a point of some concern among industry professionals in the past few years. With online advertising gaining popularity and the influx of TiVo and similar DVR devices providing viewers a way to avoid commercials altogether, advertisers have had to be a bit more creative in the delivery of their messages. One change that looks to be quite promising is actually an idea borrowed from print advertising: tie-in ads. Despite obvious differences in formatting, the general idea remains constant from print to video. Simply put, advertisers research story options in appropriate magazines, newspapers, (and now TV programs) and then tailor ads to “tie-in” to the story, (see link for example) the idea being that if a potential consumer has seen/read/listened to a story about a particular topic, they will be more receptive to advertising that relates to it. Guinness has already found some success with this method. Last spring, the company created an ad specifically
for a Discovery Channel program called Mythbusters, a show that assesses the validity of urban myths using scientific theory. In the ad (see graphic to the right), “one character asked another whether it was a ‘myth that Guinness only has 125 calories.’ After he is told the calorie count was accurate, a voiceover says: ‘Mythbusters, sponsored by Guinness.’" Further research will be required to ascertain whether or not the ad stopped TiVo viewers fast forwarding through the message (Guinness’s original goal), but those who did see the ad remembered Guinness’s name 41% more than those only exposed to traditional commercials. Percentages of this magnitude should provide strong incentives for companies to adopt this more expensive, but significantly more effective approach to television advertising.
Adjustments in ad presentation are certainly not confined to television alone, however. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Sites ranging from Google Inc. to Break.com have been experimenting intensively with replacements for the preroll, the video ads that users are forced to watch before viewing a clip.” Efforts to find the best compromise between corporate interests and consumer 
impatience have lead to innovations in the form of “skins”, ad graphics that surround the video player screen (see left-hand graphic), and “bugs”, graphics that slide over the bottom of the video-viewing screen, also know as “overlays”, and “tickers”. Though these presentations are much less invasive than their preroll predecessors, they are said to be producing good results for their implementers. Ogilvy Interactive found that “ads connected with online videos perform about three times as well as online sponsorship ads and banner ads when it comes to a consumer's brand recall… ‘it allows you to sponsor and create an association with good content,’ says Maria Mandel, executive director of digital innovations at Ogilvy Interactive.” Still, some are a bit skeptical of online advertising specifically because of the lack of control over “destination content.” Google removed ads from its social networking site, Orkut, in August following a complaint lodged by one of its advertisers against the inappropriate content displayed on personal profiles. Understandably, advertisers are wary of the potential ramifications of unknowingly connecting their brand with inappropriate or illegal activity. Google hopes, however, that efforts to improve context matching of advertising and media content will increase advertisers’ efficacy and feeling of security in the future.
In all mediums then, advertising has been making significant changes to the way they reach their targets. According to the LA Times, "Companies in the Internet space are changing their business models to have models which are consumer driven, not property driven." Indeed, this is the key to the advertising evolution that touches all media platforms. Understanding consumer preferences in message presentation will ultimately lead to the creation of a more receptive audience. Once the battle for receptivity is won, marketers can then focus on the messages being conveyed, but advertisers know that it does not matter how clever, catchy, or emotionally appealing their message is, without a receptive, attentive audience, that message is useless.
1 comment:
Ashley,
Your post on modern advertising serves to be a timely topic and was well-written. This was such an engaging article and your link items were associated with informative and useful resources which I was able to access. It is interesting how the TiVo devices provide viewers with a way to avoid watching commercials and ads. I would like to see how advertisers are going to try and overcome this problem. Would they try to incorporate commercials, if possible, within these devices? It would have been helpful if you linked websites to the TiVo and DVR devices. However, you did an excellent job of incorporating your graphics within your post. I found the second graphic to be an exceptional representation of the concept about “skins,” which are ad graphics that surround the video player screen. As an internet user, I have noticed this form of advertising and I believe it is a great way to attract the viewer’s attention since it certainly attracts my attention. Your concluding statement is straightforward and accurate in that “[no] matter how clever, catchy, or emotionally appealing their message is, without a receptive, attentive audience, that message is useless.” I certainly agree with this conclusion since you need an engaged audience before trying to rely a message through the use of commercials and ads. The work of advertisers is surely not an easy one, and as one of the many viewers in our society, I will admit that commercials are not my favorite part of watching television.
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