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IN a recent study, sales of a certain packaged-goods brand ran 12% lower in homes that had used DVRs for 18 months than in homes without DVRs.
In the same study, another brand lost 5% of its sales in DVR households. A third lost only 1%.
In fact, in every DVR household, sales of all products were down, and sales of new products were down the most.
Loss of ads means loss of sales.
The reason for this is that viewers in DVR homes are not seeing commercials. While viewers of “live” TV see about 80% of the ads, those who watch “time-shifted” TV see as few as 10%. They are zapping the ads.
Why the losses were different.
The brand that lost 12% of sales is in a price-sensitive category, and its severe drop might be due to the fact that, without its TV ads, it could not overcome the price sensitivity of consumers who did not see those ads.
The brand with almost no sales loss may not have had effective ads to begin with, so loss of ad exposure did not hurt. Or, it ran heavily on weather, sports, or news programming, which even DVR users usually watch live.
New products suffered most probably because they get most of their awareness from TV ads.
1. Prepare ads for high-speed viewing. Keep ‘em simple. Use clean graphics. Keep the primary offer on the screen for several seconds. Keep the logo prominent the entire ad. Even if viewers zap the ad, they might see the final second or two with the logo.
2. Pick live audiences for your ads. Up to 40% of prime and soap audiences in DVR homes watch on a delayed basis, but usually watch sports, news, weather, and syndicated shows live.
Credit: Jack Neff, TV Week 3/5/07, & Ad Age; TVWeek; (TVWeek Jan. 26, 2009, by Jon Lafayette; TVWeek Jan. 15, 2007, Mitch Burg; (TVWeek Feb. 26, 2007, Adam Armbruster)
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in Macon, Ga. 478-742-5266 http://www.haynesmarketing.com/
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I think the problem isn't so much the DVRS, advertisers need to be asking themselves the question "Why don't people want to see commercials?". Americans are bombarded by commercials on a constant basis, TV, Radio, Billboards, Magazines, etc. That in and of itself is likely the leading reason we all find ourselves so annoyed when an advertisement pops up and interrupts our favorite shows. Beyond that, I see commercials as constantly trying to undermine the individuals intelligence, especially in the case of direct marketing. (Buy 1 get 1 free! FULL REFUND *LESS P&H*, Credit card required with Auto-Renewal in the fine print. I would assume most people feel the same way when they see such shady tactics, but obviously the average person is too ignorant or unobservant or such companies would've stopped those tactics a long time ago. Bottom line is that if you have a great product, word of mouth will advertise for you and advertising doesn't get more effective than word of mouth. There are enough pointless and just plain silly products in the U.S., make something innovative for a change.
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