The year was 1998. You know 1998 right? The year Google search-engine was founded? The infamous Monica Lewinsky scandal? How about Eighty-two year old legendary icon Frank Sinatra dies? Or maybe for our younger audience; the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park at Walk Disney World? Any of this ringing a bell? Anyone involved in TV advertising will all say the same thing… 1998 was the year television, as we knew it was revolutionized.
Since the beginning of time, or at least since TV’s had “rabbit ears,” the only way to avoid watching advertisements was to gather up enough energy to brush the crumbs off our bare-chest and go to the kitchen to get another box of cookies. But nowadays, with the revolutionary ideas of TiVo and DVRs, we can simply fast forward past these advertisements. Does this seem fair to you? Sure it’s convenient but what about the advertisers who are virtually throwing their money away? Millions of dollars wasted. Hundreds of people working countless hours on the marketing strategy, who the target audience is and what message the commercial is trying to get across. Then once the advertising agency is finally happy with their ideas they bring them to the client. Numerous pitches shot down before the client agrees to sign off on one. But that’s not all. Then it comes to actually shooting the commercial. Time and effort spent editing and piecing it together. Adding sound effects and special effects. Not to mention the hassle a celebrity endorser could evolve into. Whether they’re showing up three hours late, the refreshments aren’t to their liking or the hairstylist messed up her hair… on and on and on the possible bumps in the road are endless But wait, it gets better. Now it’s time to actually find time slots to advertise on which is far from cheap. To put it in perspective, the main networks: ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS each round up approximately $10 billion a year in TV ad revenues.
Listen, I don’t work in the business YET, but one day I hope to and it kills me to think that my hard work will be going to waste. With this blog I plan to open some stubborn people’s eyes to how interesting advertising can be; I call these people “TiVoists.” So spoiled by their fancy DVR systems, the human race has neglected to truly appreciate great ads. Despite the growing phenomenon of TiVo and fast-forwarding past commercials which has made media-buyers lives a living hell, advertising has always been and still is what keeps these industries afloat. TV, radio and magazines all rely heavily on selling advertisement space, so without commercials, who knows what the media scene would be like today. I am hopeful that commercials become more relevant and a buzz about memorable ads (not just Super Bowl ads) begins to circulate. Although Nielsen is working hard on researching and collecting information to track viewers' TiVo habits, the TV landscape and how companies choose to advertise has forever been altered.
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