TiVo and New Media

An article in today's New York Times examines how in the age of TiVo and web video, advertisers have no choice but to adapt to these on demand television options. As consumers are watching their favorite shows on their own time, there is increasingly no such thing as "primetime," posing challenges for traditional advertisers.

TiVo and other digital video recording (DVR) technologies have transformed traditional television advertising and the way in which advertisements reach TV viewers. Digital video recorders have become synonymous with ad-skipping and liberation from intrusive marketing. Consumers are no longer buying into ads that are intrusive, disruptive or irrelevant. They control what ads they view. Therefore, a major challenge exists for advertisers who ask themselves: how can we create ads that consumers want and choose to watch, and how do we then reach the consumers in an ever growing DVR environment?

Yet, technology experts are joining with marketers to create advertising solutions using the new technologies. Nicole Urso of Response Magazine notes that “ironically, the same consumer-driven technology undermining the future of spot advertising is the same technology overcoming its self-created challenges.” DVR technologies now include specific means through which advertisers can reach consumers. Urso mentions three ways in which TiVo has solved the ad-skipping problem: a) consumers can click through to an ad using the gold star on TiVo central, b) when viewing programs, consumers can click on a tag at the bottom of the screen to opt-in to see a commercial, and finally c) consumers can peruse ads using TiVo's new keyword search function.

Urso, N. (2006). Answering the TiVo challenge. Response Magazine.

Zeisser, M. P. (2002). Marketing in a post-TiVo world. McKinsey Quarterly, Special Edition, Technology, 4, 89-92.