We can to do better than pre-roll advertising

I recently received an eMarketer notice entitled, “Online Video Advertising Starts Looking Good.”  eMarketer says that 65% of internet users now view some form of video advertising and projects that by 2012, 4 out 5 of them will.  I presume these are US statistics.  Now, 4 out of 5 is 80%, which doesn’t seem like that much of an increase.  What’s more, eMarketer defines an online video ad viewer as someone who sees any form of video advertising at least once a month.  That doesn’t sound like much either.

You also have to ask what we mean by viewing? Right now, video pre-roll commercials are one of the more common forms of online advertising.  But if this is the best format we can come up with, it hardly looks like a promising start to goodness, much less greatness.

Here’s a recent experience I had, which you’ve probably had at some point as well.  I was investigating a topic online, and clicked on a link to a video relating to it on MSNBC.  Before I could watch my video, I was forced to watch a pre-roll advertisement for a bottled salad dressing.  There was no discernible connection between the video I wanted to watch and salad dressing, food or meal preparation. Nor do I use bottled salad dressing. But if I ever do in future, I will be sure never to buy this particular brand.  Not because the ad was bad, but because the advertiser forced me to watch it.  So I guess technically I viewed the ad.  But it would have been better off for the brand if I hadn’t.

Pre-roll ads adhere to old marketing thinking that the marketer can still control the message in an age (today), and an environment (the internet), in which consumers demand to be able to choose the commercial messages they want to receive and the time and place to receive them.  Forcing an advertising message down my throat when I am in internet “search mode” is the perfect way to irritate me and turn me off to your brand.

The future of online advertising will really start to look good when, similar to Google AdWords, the technology can tailor the online video ad to the content of the video I’m watching, increasing the likelihood that the product advertised might be relevant to me, and allow me to opt in to hear the message if I so desire.  I would think this is technically possible now and the only reason it isn’t happening is because marketers are reluctant to give up the control of message delivery they’ve enjoyed up to now.

A film about the love that dare not speak its name

My friend and fellow social media blogger Susan Fitzgerald commented on my post from last week with a link to this provocative short film by Richard Herstek.  Apparently it has won a number of film awards, but I believe none of them are advertising awards.  It runs a bit over seven minutes.  At first the story is pretty heavy and you might be tempted to stop watching and move on.  But stick with it.  I guarantee you’ll end up laughing and be as intrigued as I was.  Then do me a favor and read my thoughts about it farther down the page.  I’d also really be interested in hearing what you think via a comment.

So what is this thing?  Is it advertising?  Is it art?  I am still trying to figure out how I feel about it.

On the one hand, it is just so well done.  The drama and the acting are superb.  They carried me along right through to the end, even after the “brutal truth” is revealed.  If the production had been of lesser quality, I think I would have stopped watching at that point.  But I was too caught up in the moving nature of the scene, as a boy reveals the deep, dark secret of “the love that dare not speak its name” to his mother.  It didn’t matter that at this point I knew the secret was that the boy prefers Dr. Pepper, not that he prefers boys!  It still continued to move me.  Yet I was laughing.  That’s what makes this film so masterful and original.  At one at the same time, it’s both serious drama and comic parody.  All the way through, your brain is going in two different directions at once.  But it works.

On the other hand, maybe it’s too well done.  A part of me felt cheated, manipulated, like my feelings had been tinkered with.  The film had drawn me into a profoundly human conflict.  I was certain a serious message was unfolding.  And then, suddenly, it turned out to be a parody.  A joke.  All for the purpose of promoting Dr. Pepper.  I’m not sure I’m completely comfortable with that.  Still, overall, I think it’s brilliant.

Oddly enough, despite this being a thoroughly unconventional way to promote a soft drink, the film for all its edge still follows two elementary advertising principles that every brand manager can spout off.  First, make the product essential to the drama.  Second, use the drama to position the brand.  Pepper adheres to both.  There would be no story without the product.  And the drama positions Dr. Pepper as the taste of those who march to the beat of a different drum.  It calls to mind the 7-Up “un-cola” campaign from years back, but this is so much better.  7-Up advertising simply said the brand was the un-cola.  Pepper breaks the conventions of traditional advertising to make you feel that Dr. Pepper is the un-cola, while never actually saying it.

This has cult potential.  And if it begins to spread around and get talked about on the social web, that potential may be realized.  With business results to go along with it.

The makers have no connection with Dr. Pepper or its owner, Dr. Pepper Snapple group.  This raises several questions.  Who really owns the brand? What happens when creators unaffiliated with the marketer or its agency, create communication that has as much power as this does?  Does the manufacturer embrace it, support it, help spread it, pay for it, ignore it?

This link will take you to a page with the “official” Dr. Pepper spot.  It’s vanilla in comparison (even though it features Doctor J).  And vanilla is not the taste of Dr. Pepper.

The antidote for the TV network is called the world wide web

The rumors of my death have been wildly exaggerated.

Forgive me if I sound like I’m beating the proverbial dead horse.  But with all respect to Joseph Jaffe (social media maven par excellence and author of two terrific books — Life After the 30-Second Spot and Join the Conversation), I continue to struggle with the widespread assertion that the 30-second commercial has witnessed its heyday and will soon vanish from the face of the planet.  Note that I’m not saying 30-second television commercial.  The reason for the distinction will become clear.

I have written on an earlier blog post about how effectively this old format can tell a product or brand story in a remarkably efficient amount of time.  What’s more, while I am as excited as anyone by the possibilities social media and web 2.0 tools create for brands and “consumers” to engage on a much more personal level, we live in an and/and communications world.  Fact is, there are still times when people aren’t interested in a conversation (much less creating their own TV spot).  Conversation takes time, which is one thing most people have very little of.  If there’s a new, household product out there that is going to make my life easier, or if I’m in the market for a new mobile phone, then I’m not necessarily interested in a conversation.  Right now, I may just want to get a quick overview of the product choices available to me.  I want to hear what you have to offer — fast — and then get on with it.  A one-way message is just fine.

It’s simply not true that people have a problem with 30-second commercials.  They have a problem with bad commercials — ones that are unclear, convey no apparent benefit, or do so with an execution so tedious and irritating, they’d like to throw a brick through their TV screen.  Even more so, they have a problem with commercials, good or bad, for products or services that are irrelevant to them, and that show up as uninvited and disturbing interruptions to their favorite shows.

The problem isn’t the commercial, the problem is the distribution system.  Television networks are simply ineffective at delivering a specific message to the people for whom that message is relevant, and only to them.

Enter social media!

Marketers should think about online communities and networks as a new, superbly effective distribution system for their messages.  I don’t mean they should push commercials into online social networks uninvited, but instead enable individuals online to discover commercials that are personally interesting and relevant to them.  And then pass them along to others — friends, their communities, their blogging audience — for whom they think these will also be of interest.

A mom blogger who discovers a great new kids product will be connected to others who are in the same life situation, have similar needs and will also want to know about that product.  If she has access to a commercial that she thinks gets the product story across, especially if it’s executed in an appealing way, she will naturally pass it on.  All the more if she has tried and was happy with the product.  What she won’t do is share that commercial with her online connections for whom she knows the story won’t be interesting.  In this way the community becomes a self-regulating system that ensures the message spreads only to those people who will get value from it.  How cool is that?

It doesn’t necessarily have to be the traditional 30-second spot, although when people suggest to others that they take a look at a product message, 30 seconds are relatively risk free.  If, perchance, the story isn’t of interest, at least they only wasted 30 seconds of the their friends’ precious time.

So here’s something marketers ought to consider placing on the packaging of their next product launch, upgrade or line extension.  “If you like our product, please go to http://www.brandx.com, upload our TV commercial, and share it with your friends online who you think would also be interested.”  If the expression “TV commercial” seems too pre-web 2.0, then call it a 30-second video if that makes you feel more in sync with the age of “YouTube.”

It can’t hurt.  And it just might get your message to spread across a network of thousands of interconnected, prospective buyers for whom it isn’t an intrusion, but a welcome source of news and information.

On the death of the 30-second spot and other myths

So there’s this video going around the internet called, “Where the Hell is Matt.” A guy doing a wonderful crazy dance all over the world. He seems to be dancing non-stop, from Toronto to Timbuktu, inspiring the locals to join in, backed by a soundtrack for a SiSoMo (Sight Sound and Motion) experience that could rekindle your belief in the human race. I Googled Matt’s profile. Learned that Stride Gum sponsored his video.

Stride Gum? Never heard of it. I linked to the Stride Gum web site, where there was a whole bunch of online content. Then something funny happened. I didn’t have a lot of time. So I went first to a couple of Stride Gum TV spots posted on the site. Intuitively I knew those would be the QUICKEST way to get what Stride Gum is all about.

Those spots were good! Funny, entertaining, 30-second stories all built around the drama of the product. Stride Gum has cool flavors, and the taste lasts so long, Stride has to send out swat teams to force non-stop chewers to spit out the gum, so Stride can stay in business. Thanks for letting me know, 30-second spot! I must try some Stride Gum when I’m next in the States.

So here’s the point. 30-second spots aren’t inherently EVIL. In fact, they have one undeniable virtue. Their creators have fine-tuned the art of getting across a product or brand story in an incredibly short amount of time. And in the best examples of the craft, they tell that story in a way that delights, entertains and rewards viewers for their 30-second investment. No offense to the public relations profession, but show me a PR writer who can do that! The 30-second spot still works incredibly well, when it’s well done, well integrated into a bigger whole, and when I decide, though connections I initiate, the terms on which I want to watch.

Many have said it – Kevin Roberts and Shel Holtz among others — and to them I add my voice. We’re living in the communications age of and-and, not either-or. The “cool” viral video of Matt’s inspired global dance, hand in hand with the “traditional” 30-second, product-focused spot. Only now I’m invited, not forced, to watch it. The 30-second spot isn’t dead. It just needed to find a better way to socialize.