Are Your Ads DVR-Proof? Hollywood is Tops. - Greg DePalma-TiVo

The U.S. has always dominated the global entertainment industry, and now Hollywood is leading the advertising community, specifically with their innovation in ‘direct response’ television. Commercials for theatrical releases are seldom classified as ‘direct response’ advertising. The name direct response conjures up images of low-production, ‘buy now,’ and $19.95 infomercial products such as the Ginsu Knife, Thigh Master, and Snuggie.

When you think about the objectives and buying strategy of a movie commercial, they are, in fact 100% direct response. The ads have a call-to-action (CTA); drive people to a website and the box office; and they run during a specific time period – mostly Wednesday and Thursday nights. This is why the broadcast networks historically scheduled their top-rated shows on Thursday night – NBC’s Cheers, Friends,andSeinfeld for example.

According to J.D. Power and Associates, 45% of US homes today have a DVR. The movie studios are taking notice and recently created a new direct response template to hedge against the remote control and fast-forwarding. The wide screen format lends itself to this new tactic with a black space above and below the thirty second movie clips. Traditionally a direct response advertiser would place their 1-800 number and website at bottom of the screen. But today, the fast-forward bar is superimposed over the bottom of the screen, in effect blocking the most important part of the message.

I noticed this format several times during this past holiday weekend, in particular for 20th Century Fox’s We Bought a Zoo and Paramount Pictures’ DVD release of Super 8 (see image below).

Over the past months, I’ve been telling my friends who develop direct response ads to move their call-to-action bar to the top of the screen (my previous job was managing a financial services direct response brand). One of the responses was, “I don’t want to confuse the consumer with a weird format.” I think we overestimate what the consumer thinks – it is a TV commercial. I applaud Hollywood for making the first move to hedge the DVR remote; AND for giving the consumer the benefit of the doubt.

Greg DePalma is Vice President of Audience Insights at TiVo Inc., where he consults with advertiser, agency, and network clients to increase commercial effectiveness in a DVR world. Greg can be reached at gdepalma@tivo.com.

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