Friday 22 June 2012

Advertisers never thought of this... (UPDATE - they did!)

I don't actively watch a lot of TV - I tend to record programmes or films I find interesting, and then watch them in chunks when the rest of the family aren't watching cartoons or soaps.

I record them on our Sky+ box (if you're not in the UK, that's a satellite TV digital video recorder).

I love the DVR, because, not only does it let me time-slip my viewing, it lets me easily zip through the adverts on commercial TV.

It occurred to me, though, that, now that DVRs are so common, advertisers are definitely missing a trick in the adverts.

When I zip through the breaks at x12 or x30 speeds, the adverts are meaningless, because I hear nothing, and the images are too disjointed to register anything more than the occasional brand marking or logo.

Yet, this is the time when I am focussed most intently on the screen, watching for the end of the break so I can hit play.  I can't be the only one using the DVR like this, yet the advertisers haven't responded in any way.

Imagine; adverts that look boring or even old-fashioned in real-time, but make normal-speed silent films when zipping through the breaks.  A single stationary image, ignored for twenty or thirty second in a normal ad break, would become a powerful tool to reach all the DVR users that sit and focus on the screen to zip through the break.

Now, pay attention, media types - nobody is doing this right now, which means that nobody has thought of it before.  This idea is mine.

I think 20% of your contract fee is reasonable, don't you?

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UPDATE: Damn, somebody has thought of it!

I just watch a movie I recorded from  5*, and they've found an even simpler way of making you watch the adverts - they flash up the channel ident, which normally shows the end of the break, every few adverts.  You're zipping through, see the ident, automatically hit the play button, and accidentally watch an advert.

#annoying

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