The Death of the Commercial

[zero]

From Yahoo! News

NEW YORK - Some of the most creative thinking in television these days has nothing to do with comedy or drama. It's about the commercials. Fueled by a growing sense of desperation, networks are inserting games, quizzes and mini-dramas into commercial breaks.

They're incorporating more product pitches into programming. Two experimental programs without traditional commercial breaks will premiere this fall. NBC has even called on Jerry Seinfeld for help.

This is all being done to stop viewers with DVRs from fast-forwarding through advertisements, or to circumvent those that do.

Adding to the urgency, this week Nielsen Media Research begins offering ratings for commercial breaks, instead of just the shows around them.

"We all need to become more creative in how we incorporate sponsors into a program," said Ed Swindler, executive vice president for NBC Universal ad sales. "No one on the creative side or the business side wants to make commercials intrusive, but we do need to commercialize efficiently so viewers can afford to get free television."

An estimated 17 percent of American homes now have digital video recorders. Nielsen estimates that in prime-time, nearly half of 18-to-49-year-old viewers with DVRs are watching recorded programs instead of live ones. Of these, six in 10 skip through the ads.

Figure in bathroom breaks and channel surfers, and that makes for a lot of missed opportunities for marketers — with a lot more coming as DVR use grows.

So far, the most frequent experiment is to insert original content into commercial breaks. The CW network pioneered "content wraps" last year where, in one example, a hair care company ditched the typical ad to present beauty tips and interviews with the network's stars, all involving the company's products.

The CW figured on doing six content wraps at first, but advertisers were so enthusiastic that 20 were done, a spokesman said.

TNT aired a five-episode mini-drama about a young woman, with viewers directed to a Web site — plastered with the sponsoring credit card company's ads — for the finale. Fox created an animated taxi driver, Oleg, who would appear during breaks talking to his passengers. Next month Court TV offers a mystery about an unsolved murder with clues dropped in commercial breaks, online and via text messages; the game's winner gets $25,000. Fans of NBC's "Scrubs" were asked trivia questions at the beginning of a commercial break, the answer appearing in between ads.

Seinfeld will appear in several quick comedy skits for NBC next fall that also promote his upcoming movie.

TBS has tried making commercial breaks a destination. It often bunches a series of funny commercials together and promotes them ahead of time to viewers.

"It makes sense to have a funny commercial in a funny pod on a funny network," said Linda Yaccarino, executive vice president of Turner's ad sales.

Many networks are rethinking how traditional commercial breaks are structured.

Executives at ABC are considering ways to get viewers into an ad before they even realize it. On"Ugly Betty," for example, the camera focuses on a book as its cover dissolves into a commercial. Or there could be a real ad playing on a television that is in the scene of a show.

The CW is readying "cwickies," a series of five-second ads that, by an evening's end, promotes a longer ad. With a sponsor's assist, TNT will air some series premieres commercial-free to entice viewers. Both the CW and Telemundo will premiere shows in the fall — an entertainment newsmagazine and talent contest — with commercials incorporated into the shows.

One television expert suggests networks need to go back to the future, to when sponsor messages were routinely weaved into entertainment.

Comic Jack Benny's radio show would include humorous "phone calls" with executives at the company sponsoring his show, said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

His students yawn in boredom at old black-and-white TV shows, but perk up when they see commercial messages float in. One favorite comes from "The Flintstones," when Fred and Barney take a break from cutting the grass to enjoy their favorite cigarette.

Ford's "American Idol" videos and company-specific "tasks" on "The Apprentice" are the most effective examples of this approach today, Thompson said.

Marketers also need to make their commercials more entertaining and guard against overexposure, he said.

"A commercial has to be like a DVD extra," he said. "It has to be an added value, not an inconvenience."

Nielsen's new report card may force that idea upon them, too. The new commercial minute averages will provide a truer sense of how many people are actually watching the ads, and that could be a scary moment for the TV industry.

The new Nielsen averages will fall short, however, in letting people what are the most popular ads in the country. Nielsen will only provide ratings for certain minutes, and most individual commercials fall well short of 60 seconds.

I found this to be an incredibly interesting article because it could either be really good or really bad news. I would hope that advertisers have evolved enough to realize that viewers can sense cheap product placement, but never underestimate the stupidity of a marketing team. Also, I fear that in place of network promos for upcoming shows, we're going to get more of those obnoxious ads across the bottom of the screen during programming. It's like a pop-up ad that I can't block; I was watching Kill Bill on TNT the other day and they have this giant ad for "The Closer" across the bottom of the screen blocking the fucking subtitles!

However, this could be really good though because it could mean the death of the painfully horrible commercials. The FX network has really embraced this. I don't have to watch countless commercial breaks for XM Satellite Radio, I get "The Shield - Presented Commercial-Free by XM Satellite Radio" before and after the show. Hell, I wouldn't even mind a company logo in the bottom left hand corner accompanying the network's logo on the right, kinda like WWE programming. As long as it's not overly obnoxious, why not do a couple? Maybe one quarter-hour, there's an XM logo, then fifteen minutes later it's replaced by Chevy, then Budweiser, or Sony. I would gladly take that as opposed to four 5-minute commercial breaks or obscene product placement.

Of course, this news also means more Airy Tuesdays. :pinch:

Edited May 30, 2007 by Zero

[oldskool]

The business needs more Guinness commercials. They don't just go "Irrelevant things...more irrelevance...BRAND NAME BRAND NAME BRAND NAME, CATCHY SLOGAN OF THE QUARTER!", they tell a story and have recognizable characters. A Guinness commercial is actually worth watching. Everything else is just sort of formulaic, predictable and well deserving of it's bathroom break-inducing powers.

[Lord Nibbler]

Hell, I wouldn't even mind a company logo in the bottom left hand corner accompanying the network's logo on the right, kinda like WWE programming. As long as it's not overly obnoxious, why not do a couple? Maybe one quarter-hour, there's an XM logo, then fifteen minutes later it's replaced by Chevy, then Budweiser, or Sony. I would gladly take that as opposed to four 5-minute commercial breaks or obscene product placement.

[zero]

A company logo doesn't exactly tell you very much about the company or its products, though. Not to mention that the money brought in from advertising would drop considerably if all companies could do was stick a tiny, static image in the corner of the screen. If the advertising income drops, so do the budgets for TV shows and then nobody wins.

Of course, that was just a quick idea I came up with off the top of my head. Maybe to accompany the logo, those companies will have commercials after the show. I'm not saying all TV shows should be commercial-free, I'm just proposing ideas to make it more appealing to advertisers.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

When TV was in its infancy, weren't commercials done by the regular on-air talent as more or less part of the show anyhow?

[thuganomic]

Clearly, they need to adopt the JR approach.

Dr. Cox: Look h-heeer-e, Newbie......what you really need to do is FRUITY FRUITY SKITTLES!~!~

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

Figure in bathroom breaks and channel surfers, and that makes for a lot of missed opportunities for marketers — with a lot more coming as DVR use grows.

[Benji]

Figure in bathroom breaks and channel surfers, and that makes for a lot of missed opportunities for marketers — with a lot more coming as DVR use grows.

it's comments like this that make me worry that TV and marketing executives figure out how to pass a law making it illegal to not watch commercials. 'Cuz if you channel surf, or go to the bathroom during the commercials, you're stealing the show, y'see, just like with DVRs.

While it gives me hope that the networks seem to be evolving around the changing markets, I'm worried they may go the RIAA route and force the market to suit them, by force of law if need be.

That's just the kind of twisted logic that corporations use, it's not stealing things, that word is used and abused and your use of it might be the most horrid misuse of it I've ever seen. How is it stealing a TV show by just not watching the commercials? I can understand recording DVD's, downloading MP3's and the such to large degree (though the latter of which, my stance has always been "if it's good enough when I download it, I'll trade my cash for it"), but to say "hey, I can't be bothered being barraged by ads for stuff I don't want or need" is theft? C'mon now, use some sense.

[MalaCloudy Black]

That's just the kind of twisted logic that corporations use

I think that was the point. I don't think he was being literal.

[Benji]

I may have misinterpreted that ¬_¬

[zero]

The TV execs have learned that they have to embrace the DVR, the technology is here to stay, despite some people trying to get rid of them; hence, stuff going on between the commercials, which is really a much better idea for them anyway. The idiots that rant about DVR and Tivo killing the industry should realize those things may save them. If you outlaw Tivo, then how does a person avoid the commercials? They change the channel, the worst thing that can happen to any network.

[Cactus Drags]

This is all being done to stop viewers with DVRs from fast-forwarding through advertisements, or to circumvent those that do.

[dwood]

Actually, in wrestling, they could just have a big logo instead of a grey mat. Then again, do we really want to see a rainbow coloured Skittles ad?

[Benji]

Actually, in wrestling, they could just have a big logo instead of a grey mat. Then again, do we really want to see a rainbow coloured Skittles ad?

No, it'd take away from fruity booty motherfucking skittles.

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

Actually, in wrestling, they could just have a big logo instead of a grey mat. Then again, do we really want to see a rainbow coloured Skittles ad?

[zero]

Actually, in wrestling, they could just have a big logo instead of a grey mat. Then again, do we really want to see a rainbow coloured Skittles ad?

WCW used to do that with Pay-Per Views, they'd put the logos of the companies sponsoring the event on the mat.

I haven't paid that close attention lately, but does TNA still advertise on the apron?

[Herr Matzat]

you know this will only be soled to ideots? Like people who are dumb enough to buy DVD players that are not region free....

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Those who have seen commercials in both the US and UK are there major similarities in advertising in the two countries or are they pretty different? Cos some UK adverts are excellent - especially from some companies - namely Guinness, Honda, even Citreon. High concept, clever and artistic output.

[Colly]

Not to mention Cillit Bang. Don't you remember the penny test?

[Dingle]

The Orange adverts are ALWAYS great. I usually wish that the beeb would get adverts just so we wouldn't have to pay for a TV license over here