Tic Tac Toe

The media business is, in part, founded on the medium’s ability to deliver eyeballs to advertisers. Obviously the ability of any one medium (and I mean, for example, a TV channel, not all of TV) to do that on a large-scale has been diminished over the years. However, there is an expectation, in my opinion, on the part of advertisers that somewhere at the end of the media equation is a sale.

Part of what we used to sell in TV was the fact that there is only one ad on the screen at a time and your product is front and center. And while that’s still true, a few other things have changed which show how dumb we TV folks have become in many ways.
I was watching 24 and the local break came on.  First spot in the pod: an Audi commercial.  Nothing particularly noteworthy there.  Second spot: a Lexus commercial.  Hmm.  Two cars in a row, and competing brands at that.  Third spot comes on: a VW commercial.  Three in a row.  What do I win?

I vividly remember a sales meeting years ago where we had a lengthy discussion of putting a second unit for a product in the same category at the end of a pod where an advertiser’s  spot had aired.  We felt that if there was separation of at least 2 commercials we were probably OK but expected to take some flack for it.  So how is this different?  The spots just have less separation.  Hey – supply and demand, right?

Wrong.  When I see 90 seconds of ads back to back for three competitors, no one is winning.  Even if the spots are 100% effective and the consumer goes out and buys a car, two of the three lose.  More importantly, two of the three are going to question the effectiveness of the channel and maybe the medium.  Yes, the local Fox affiliate made a few bucks on this sale but if any of these three were my client I’d be on the phone with the Fox general sales manager this morning to adjust their thinking and my schedule.  I’d offer to pay a premium to keep competitors away from my spot and wait for a response.  I love a good intelligence test.

There have always been those who take the quick buck and they’re the ones who are out looking for new bucks all the time.  You wonder why traditional media is in trouble?  Here is another example.  Maybe this is the effect, not the cause, but it’s still bad for all the businesspeople involved.  Three car spots in a row – the entire pod.  How many viewers are at the dealer this morning?

Have you seen anything like this?  What do you think?