They have TIVO and she can't talk about commercials she hasn't seen.
It was then I noticed something fascinating about the conversation threads going around the table. When people did talk about TV, they didn't talk about the shows.
Oh, okay, there were a couple of comments about McSteamy and McDreamy. I did ask where McGrumpy, McSleepy, McSneezy, McSleazy and the rest of the dwarves were in the line up, but the bulk of the conversation was about commercials. Recently I read that more and more people are programming their TIVO to skip through uninteresting story arcs in their favorite TV shows.
What? Skip through parts of the show? So they can talk about the commercials?
I've written about commercials that make it and don't before and I knew that commercials generated talk. I didn't know that the commercial-related talk dominated TV-based talk. Congratulations to the marketing agencies...I think.
Do you watch TV to be entertained? Educated? Just to have something on while you're sitting around in the evening? It's no wonder that ad campaigns last longer than the shows they advertize on. If people can remember the commercial better than the show, which is more memorable? Which is more entertaining?
Advertisers will love this little fact. TV producers maybe not so much so. The web is showing us that people are very willing to watch several dozen 3-5 minute videos in a session and not so much a 22 minute show.
Get ready, folks. The next TV network may be one that does things in reverse. The main content will be commercials interrupted by 3-5 minutes of show.
Wait a second...that's called "cable", right?
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- DeBranding, Again...
- Role Models in Advertising - Beer Cans on the Woodland Path
- A Commercial Suggesting it's Good to be Part of a Machine
- This is a dangerous image
- Sweetness' Findings: Men Drivers
- Were you paying attention?
- Stereotypical Ego-Identification Matrices
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