Say it isn’t so TiVo

TiVo is touting its new ad tagging feature allowing advertisers to insert a branded icon into their commercials. Viewers will now have the opportunity to click on the ad tag to learn more about the product being advertised. This ad tag will appear even as viewers fast-forward through commercials.

What stories are TiVo marketers telling themselves? Do they really believe TiVo users want to learn more about advertisers? I thought TiVo and other DVR device users want to learn less about advertisers by skipping commercials and not more by interacting with them.

In fact, statistics show 71% of all DVRs are used to SKIP commercials. Another way to look at this is the vast majority of TiVo users pay a monthly fee to avoid the commercials they can’t easily avoid through cable, satellite, or broadcast television. Yet, TiVo seems to be stubbornly oblivious to this fact.

David Courtney, TiVo’s CFO, had this to say in response to TiVo’s ad tagging initiative and commercial zapping by DVR users, "That doesn’t mean they want to skip commercials. It means they want information on products and services that are relevant to them.”

Huh? Say it isn’t so TiVo. With that mindset, TiVo just became much less relevant to this consumer.

Yo TiVo … to become more relevant to consumers, stop trying to solve for the marketing challenges facing advertisers. Instead, start re-focusing your efforts on solving for helping consumers better control exactly what they want to watch and more importantly … what they don’t want to watch. Dig?

Comments

[Josh Sklar]

A colleague sent me this URL. Here was my response to her:

There are actually people out there – the majority of people – who are, in fact, interested to learn more about certain products and services. That’s why advertising is so effective. That’s why SPAM is so effective. If people weren’t making a lot of money from it, they wouldn’t bother.

The future is truly going to be integrated advertising messages mixed within the story lines. In other words, product placement. My vision has always been that people will be able to use some sort of pointer to select an object in a TV show/movie (e.g., the lead character’s blouse or the hero’s car or an electronic component), pause the show and find out more about the product. Perhaps get a demo and have the ability to order it.

This TiVo thing, which has been announced for a while, is really a way of preventing legislation from being introduced the way it was in Japan. It’s actually now illegal there for DVRs to allow viewers to skip commercials. This TiVo plan seems like a great solution: allowing the viewer the choice — do they really want to see the ad or not.

Remember, if it weren't for the ads, you wouldn't have most of the shows you watch. Whether "commercial" tv or cable.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Josh, we could debate the effectiveness of advertising all day long. Don't want to go there. But I am interested in knowing what the latest advertisement you saw which motivated you to purchase. (I can't recall the last thing I bought motivated by seeing an ad for it.)

Yeah ... the TiVo ad tagging deal was announced months ago but it just went ‘live’ to TiVo’s 3 million subscribers.

The ad tag doesn't solve for whether or not a customer wants to see the ad. They are going to see it no matter what either in regular play or in fast forward. These ad tags will allow a viewer to click on the ad tag to do just as you proposed -- to learn more about the product.

Do people really want to interact with their TV in this way? Or have people become more accustomed to interacting with their computer in this way. Count me in with the skeptics, along with Al & Laura Ries, who doesn't believe in the convergence hype of interactive television.

[Andy Nardone]

I know nothing about the economics of this development but my knee-jerk reaction is that it's a short term fix for Tivo to open up a new revenue stream. And short term fixes are just that because they don't last over the long term.

I agree with the doctor's comments about the convergence issue. Why do we continually have to attempt to turn our TVs into our computers? I present myself to my computer in a desk chair, prepared to work, do creative things, learn new things, be productive.

I present myself to my TV horizontal on a couch, nosh in hand, prepared to...well relax, veg, unwind, catch a game - basically be entertained.

These two experiences are so vastly different for me. I just don't see myself being compelled, while rolling on the floor with laughter, to find out more about Tobias Funke's slick new cell phone or the like.

[the head lemur]

This has been in the works for months.
http://theheadlemur.typepad.com/ravinglunacy/2004/11/tivo_whineners.html
I guess they didn't get enough negative feedback

[Dustin]

Trying to understand how this really impacts TiVo users. I don't have a TiVo, so enlighten me. Does it actually "fast-forward" through commercials, or does it skip them? Do the ad tags just appear on the screen or do they require the user to skip ads AND decline the tags?

[Elisa Pinigis]

Marketing suffers from fear of abandonment and pursues consumers relentlessly, not willing to acknowledge self defeating behavior or risk that the product can succeed on its own merits.

[Darrin Dickey]

Dustin, TiVo allows you to fast forward through commercials. Replayer allowed you to jump ahead 30 seconds at a time.

John, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, as I understand it test with DVRs - including TiVo - had good responses when using this tagging system. (However, I think some of that is strictly because it's still a novelty feature.)
In fact, TiVo has been playing with various forms of ads like this for some time. I've been a TiVo user for years and have seen a few. It seems to mostly be cars (which I could care less about and don't view) and movie trailers (which I enjoy watching and like them on my TiVo). I can get longer movie trailers - we're not limited to :30 or :60 spots. However, I believe as the novelty wears off, fewer and fewer viewers will click through to see the advertising.

[Dustin]

If this system doesn't lengthen or complicate the process of fast-forwarding, I don't see a problem. Seems like permission marketing at work (even permission marketing has to interrupt to get attention), especially if they start noticing and responding to trends. Oh, Darrin doesn't like car ads, but he does like movie trailers... sooo Darrin gets more movie trailers and fewer car ads. Congratulations.

[Thomas]

But TiVo's whole meaning and message was built on "watch it later and skip the commercials", right?

The desire for revenue won't reverse it. That's a CEO/BOD growth-fantasy affliction.

Isn't selling "Commercial TiVo" sort of like selling a "Safe Harley"?

[Dustin]

... and you can still skip the commercials like you can wear a helmet while riding a Harley. Not exactly what people see when they think TiVO and Harley, but buying a TiVO doesn't mean you CAN'T watch the commercials and buying a Harley doesn't mean you CAN'T wear a helmet.

Maybe I'm one of the few people here who isn't an advertising "atheist." I don't think word of mouth and advertising are necessarily mutually exclusive.

[Fazal Majid]

I ditched my TiVo 2 years ago precisely because they started putting annoying ads in the menus and navigation. The Panasonic PVR I now use is less user-friendly, but it is not networked, and thus cannot push random marketing garbage or feature-crippling "upgrades" at me.