Today's
electronic media thrusts commercials onto viewers who are engaged
in viewing mainline content. TV programs are suddenly disrupted to
display commercials. And web pages suddenly pop up banner ads, which
sometimes even cover the web page contents!
It is the viewers· unhappiness with disruptive commercials that gave
rise to the need for TV programs without commercials - a business
opportunity which created TiVo, an all-American product which allowed
viewers to automatically record & playback TV programming with the
option of skipping commercials.
Today,
with over 4,00,000 U.S. clients and scores of competitors, it is clear
that TiVo is a success. So why has TiVo started displaying ads?
Ads
Without Disruption
From
ads which disrupt viewers to ads which are matched with results
of user searches. To ads which are displayed only when the viewer
wants to see. One thing seems clear - the new ads are steadily moving
to suit the concept of "audience of one".
What Google started as its Adwords program is nothing less than
revolutionary. Advertisers can bid for certain keywords (ad words)
and specify a text message along with URLs. If any of these keywords
are found on a Google Search results page, then Google displays
the text message & URL alongside.
This
was the beginning of "context-sensitive" ads · ads which were displayed
without causing serious cognitive disruption to the user. Soon,
Google extended this concept to its email service ·Gmail· · by displaying
sponsored messages based on keywords in the current email.
Today, TiVo is the latest to offer keyword based video ads (Product
Watch service). With this, TiVo is extending its role to create
a digital advertising platform which displays video ads based on
keyword entered by user. (Along with pop-up messages which wait
for a click to view commercials.)
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TiVo’s
"Product Watch"
Along
with the list of TV programs stored, TiVo displays the (new)
“Product Watch” option.
Once
in Product Watch, you can select the ad you want to watch
by entering a keyword.
Clients
General Motors and Kraft Foods (as usual?) were among
the first 2 advertisers to sign up for Product Watch. Along
with 60 others. By the way, similar ads are available on video-on-demand
services offered by U.S. cable operators like Comcast.
Viewership
The popularity of Product Watch remains to be tested. However,
given that the ads will compete directly with TV programming
implies that ad content will be of high quality, making them
more “watchable”.
And being downloaded from the web, “Product Watch”
ads need not be restricted to 30-second spots – but
can include 30 minute infomercials like cooking tips from
Kraft Foods.
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Future
of Advertising?
TiVo·s Product Watch service will further reduce the difference
between Television & Internet because it enables its subscribers
(who have broadband Internet access) to watch web ads on their TV
set.
TiVo·s
·Product Watch· is an on-demand ad service, connected to the growing
online media. Could it be an indication of the future of advertising?
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