DVR viewer behavior

For those following Digital Video Recorder (DVR) usage with interest, Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI) released results of their Spring 2006 Research study and suggests that adults in households that have digital video recorders watch less TV than adults in the general population.

Excerpts:

“More Than 11% of Adults Live in Households That Have DVR’s.”

“U.S. adults whose households have a digital video recorder (DVR) are more upscale than those that do not and are more likely to be heavy readers of magazines and newspapers.”

“20% of all adults who watch 44.5 or more hours of television per week.”

“15.7% of adults in DVR-owning households who watch that many hours.”

“36.8% of adults with DVR’s have a college education and 17.1% have average household income exceeding $150,000.”

“Of adults with DVR’s in the household, 15.7% have home values exceeding $500,000.”

Methodology:
In-home interviews conducted by Mediamark with 26,000 adults between March 2005 and May 2006.

Concerns:
Advertisers worry about viewers time shifting/skipping past commercials.

Researchers for the major networks told advertisers in November that people in households with a DVR watched 12% more hours of TV a day than those without.

CBS says the Mediamark numbers were unreliable, because they were derived from people’s often-low reports of their own TV watching. The figures suggesting that adults who use a DVR watch more television come from Arbitron’s 2,000-person machine-recorded survey in the spring of 2005, but it covered only the Houston market.

CBS further maintains that their own research indicates that whatever their level of TV viewing, viewers tend to watch more television after getting the devices than before.

Links:

• Mediamark ResearchPress Release
• NYTimes.com: Does a DVR Boost Viewing Hours or Not?
  

Marketing inspiration is everywhere.

I tend to ignore online media ads. (Shh, don’t tell my clients) Being in the advertising business so long and having to troll through so many Web sites daily, my attention span is limited. I usually do stop for animation, eye poping colors or out of banner actions.

So why did this static media unit on the Seattle Times catch my eye?

Smart marketers have been using forms in rich media units for years to perform a basic function (e.g. loan calculator) or capture a few key pieces of contact info. I realized this one also specifically called attention to Washington drivers and posted in a Washington media site. Again, nothing startling. But just something I hadn’t seen executed before. It’s smart.

A geo-targeted ad, customized to the audience most likely to read the publication. Capturing key data points in the ad allows the user to get prescreened and directed to an appropriate solution. It’s also beneficial for the advertiser since it prescreens/prequalifies prospects early on. Smart and efficient!

I get inspired in other ways too.

• Podcasts (Ask A Ninja, TikiBar TV, TWiT, DL.tv)
• Professional Blogs
• Exploring new “Web 2.0″, social networking, and AJAX apps

So, challenge yourself. Stop and look around you. Something might catch your eye and spark your imagination. Marketing is more fun when it’s challenging, smart and measurable.

Enjoy!
-Roland

A contest doesn’t have to have a prize

As advertisers struggle to come up with ideas to engage the elusive and fickle youth market, the incentive is always a topic of debate. What do you offer: free iPod, music, Sidekick, game console, cash?

How about… nothing? Or put a marketing spin on nothing and make it “bragging rights”? Here’s an example:
http://obey.msn.com/

Obey is a mobile scavenger hunt. Each week, participants must take a photo of an object and submit it.

The fact that Sprite is the brand behind this is not obvious. The only obvious hint is the lemon-lime theme. (Put that and the name “Obey” together and you might recall Sprint’s old theme “Obey Your Thirst“) Hidden links take the user to more content where Sprite connects with consumers in the offline world via their Urban Games.

What’s most important is engaging your audience in a meaningful way that they will want to participate. A fun challenge without overt branding will be accepted. Allowing marketers and legal folks to muddy the concept with cross-sell messages, pages of legal disclaimers and all around bad judgement will surely lead to failure.

What are your thoughts? Is a prize incentive critical to success?
-Roland

Using MySpace to engage consumers

The media likes to bash on MySpace as a site where predators prowl. As a result, major brands have shied away from leveraging the opportunity to reach and engage with consumers. But not everyone is running scared.

Here’s an interesting example I just discovered. On July 8th, the Luann comic strip promoted a url to a fictitional character’s (Tiffany) My Space page:

I finally checked that page 3 days later and there were 585 other MySpace community members that had linked to Tiffany (aka “Sheraton”) as a friend. That doesn’t include however many visitors that had viewed the page but didn’t leave a message or link to her.

Plus, these “friends” leave comments that play along with with fictional character.

Tiffany has posted her modeling photos and several blog posts. The comic strip suggests that arch-rival “Luann” may make discrete posts to Tiffany’s site, thus compelling readers to follow the drama from the newspaper to the Web and back.

Pretty impressive for such a minimal investment, don’t you think?
-Roland

Bad advertising

John C. Dvorak’s blog posted an interesting photo:

Lessons learned:

• Stop and check on your brand image every now and then. Make sure it is consistent and accurate.
• Keep an eye out for disgruntled customers or employees who may be out to harm your brand.

Free advertising

Free advertising is so easy to get. Just don’t think to hard about how to get it. Case in point…

Diet Coke and Mentos
Apparently when you mix soda and the candy, Mentos, a chemical reaction causes the soda to erupt from a bottle. Two performers had posted a short video of themselves on YouTube, demonstrating their symphony of soda spray. It got them an appearance on the Today Show, which I happened to catch by coincidence on Friday 6/30. Millions got to witness the performance with Diet Coke and Mentos. The next morning, I’m looking at a picture in the paper where Jersey beach goers are making sand volcanoes erupt with the same mixture.

According to the performers, any soda will do, but Diet Coke is less sticky. So by now the Diet Coke and Mentos brands have received countless free impressions. Representatives for the companies are all to happy that their consumers find creative ways to enjoy these fine products.

Logitech Web cam
Last March, YouTube contributor “BowieChick” innocently enough posted a video about her break up. As she sped through the story, she added special effects over her face — a gas mask, cat eyes. No expected this short video to be a viral breakout star and viewed by many. C|Net reported in early April that it had been viewed 200,000 times. Site visitors asked how she did the special effects, so she posted a follow-up video demonstrating how they were applied with a software bundled with certain Logitech Web cams. Other viewers also posted their own sarcastic recreations of the original video. Logitech did benefit from a brief spike in sales on Amazon and all the brand awareness generated.

So how do you create a viral video for your brand?
It is certainly not easy. It can’t be staged. It needs to get an addictive hook across immediately.

Entertainment Weekly made their own attempt and posted an interesting recap of their experience.
EW.com: I Want to be a viral video star

It chronicles how some staff at Entertainment Weekly spent a month trying to come up with a catchy, 2.5 minute viral video, to prove they could do it.

They asked advice from a comedian, a girl who’s own video became a hit and professional viral marketers. They posted their video on YouTube, created a Gmail account and a MySpace page to track interest.

Do you know the secret for success? Please post a comment.
Thanks.
-Roland