I knew Nielsen didn't formally track the viewership of TV commercials as part of its television ratings, but somehow, I didn't know it. It seems like an obvious win -- after all, ever since the days when VCRs reared their 12:00-blinking heads in the world's living rooms (and don't even get them started on TiVo), broadcasters have been wondering whether people were watching commercials.
Well here you are, Nielsen: I watch TV ads, and so do my children, so they can nag me. But you'll know that soon, as you're about to start formally breaking out commercial breaks in the TV numbers you report. Everyone's expecting, of course, to see that viewership declines sharply during advertisements. And the natural evolution of the negotiation strategy: advertisers will start asking to pay less for their 30 seconds' worth of that reduced number of eyeballs. Money will flow away from the TV breaks and toward that other, far more measurable medium: the internet.
Or will it? So many advertisers have already made their mark by liberally sprinkling their products throughout the plots of your favorite shows. Take Kyle XY, the ABC Family show I've become addicted to. Kyle and his "brother" use Sour Patch Kids as currency. Watched the Hallmark Channel original movies recently? Boy have I never seen such loving treatment of an automobile. The camera loves the minivan ...
And isn't the "get up at the commercial and get a snack" contingent already calculated into the equation when advertisers decide how much they'll pay?
They may be admen but they're not complete idiots. And let's recall: I watch commercials. I bet a lot of you do, too. Is this really going to be a lose for the networks and a win for AOL, Yahoo!, Google, MSN?
I think the answer is no. But it seems that my opinion is the minority. What it might be (and here the Wall Street Journal agrees) is an opportunity for more and better data. After all, on the internet we know if the ad was clicked, we know if the clicker bought a product or signed up for a mailing list or scheduled an appointment.
With more and better data, as the Journal points out, you may not get better prices -- but you probably could negotiate for (say) the first spot after the break, or for some commitment to fewers ads-per-break, or some other way of reducing the quantity and improving the quality.
I love TV commercials, and so do my children, and I tend to pay a lot more attention to them than I do any online advertising. But what I love more is product placement, and I'm betting on that.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-11-2006 @ 4:19PM
A Barlow said...
They really should find out who actually listens to commercials. We turn the sound off on all commercials- and a good commercial either needs no sound or encourages us to turn the sound back on.