Made You Look! Life after the DVR

Like any busy career girl and wife, I love my DVR. The power of having the control to decide when I watch my favorites shows, the organization of my shows by date and time and best of all – speeding through nearly 20 minutes of uninspired commercials for an hour long program. It’s liberating! In my opinion, my DVR is second only to my microwave in terms of revolutionary household technology.

Pesky commercials now fly by as key words and bright colors on my screen, like pretty performance art. Sure, I can push play if I have the overwhelming desire to watch a caveman sell me insurance with bad indie rock playing in the background or a broom stalking a housewife since she discovered the latest Swiffer product. But more often then not, I consider it a significant accomplishment to push play at the exact moment the screen fades back to my show. It’s a high-stakes game of skill in our house. You loose, you give up control of the remote.

As a marketing person, I understand the value and importance of commercials (assuming they have good messaging and compelling design). Heck I can hum and quote most jingles and tag lines as I walk the isles of Target. But as a general viewer I just want to throw things at my TV screen when bad copy and horrible symbolism befoul my TV (flying Wheat Thins, really?!?), but since flat screen TVs are not as sturdy as their predecessors – that behavior is a no-no in the Taylor household.

These days, it takes an exceptionally well thought out commercial to be worthy of my play button. Last week, that rare breed came in the form of a Honda commercial during the season premiere of Chuck.

That clever beast deceived me into pushing play early by making me think it was my show returning early. It did it by featuring actors from the program on a road trip. Can’t help thinking of the Connect Four line, “Very sneaky, Sis.” And it gets better – not only was it funny and tied to the show’s back story, these Honda commercials are episodic – so I’m now committed to watching the commercial each week just to see what happens next on this wacky road trip to Canada and why Morgan has pink ice skates.

So what’s the lesson? The same lesson that prevails throughout most marketing and PR strategies. Relevance and relationships anchored with good messaging get and keep people’s attention and bust through the DVR gatekeeper. Whether it’s a national commercial or the copy for your company’s brochure or a print ad in a trade publication – you have to push pause and take time to ask yourself a few basic questions. 

1. Who is your audience?
2. Why should they care who you are or what you are offering?
3. What do you want them to do once they decide they do care?
4. Is this something you would want to watch or read your self?
5. Am I using the right medium to tell my story?

Pretty simple really. Yet, after watching the last 10 commercials on the Science Channel it’s painfully obvious these basic steps are rarely followed, and then made worse by bad production quality. Makes a girl want to turn off her TV, and that’s just sad.  With marketing and advertising budgets being slashed due to a tight economy, it is crucial that organizations make the most of those slim marketing dollars. And that doesn’t just mean obtaining great added values like extra spots, paper upgrades or complementary editorial coverage.

It means making sure you’ve thoroughly answered the five basic questions and consulted with experienced marketing professionals to ensure your product and messaging gets the care and attention it deserves before being sent out into the world.

Remember, good TV is everybody’s responsibility. View and create responsibly.

Carrie

Sr. Account Executive