The legacy model of how consumers get through commercials was to either mute them or change channels in what is known as ‘channel surfing.’ But the ideas of what to do with this space in time is evolving. The market trend is driving towards consumer choice on when and how they watch creative and commercial content. The new emerging model is exemplified by Pandora in what I call ‘The Pandora Model.’
‘The Pandora Model’ gives consumers the option to listen to the commercials or to do a sponsorship activity in order to go ad-free for one hour. This model is allowing consumers to have more freedom in how they spend their commercial breaks.
Additionally, the format of the sponsored listening ad product is an engagement activity, which is highly desired by advertisers. When consumers choose to do the activity, they are expecting to engage, hence the meaning of “activity.” The user is primed to engage because they accepted the invitation. Even though they have the option to immediately continue on to listening to their music after the video ad, they feel they signed on to engage and so most first time users will. Second and third time users may be privy enough to know they can skip the actual activity once they sat through the video. But regardless, when presented with an interesting activity, users engage. The sponsorship activity gives the consumer an opportunity to drive their own learning about the product/service, rather than just hold our ears hostage. Both the consumer and advertiser win because it gets the consumer to actually pay attention yet they don’t have to listen to any more commercials for a whole hour giving them more time to enjoy the content.
‘The Pandora Model,’ no doubt, is setting the stage for the future of advertising. Content providers will likely adopt this model of consumer choice as the new industry standard and even take it a step further and leverage social media and Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI). Consumers may soon have the choice of bypassing a regular roll of commercials and choosing between either expressing their opinion on specified products/services/brands or may have their choice on the types of commercials they watch.
During any given commercial break, media content providers may soon be able to give consumers the option to bypass traditional commercial rolls and to leave their opinion on social media sites on one out of select advertisers instead. If consumers do not have an opinion to share on the select advertisers, then they may choose to watch commercials instead, however, they could select which commercials they want to watch based on what they plan on purchasing in the near future. This latter approach leverages the opportunity of consumers sharing what they are interested in, and as a result would see only relevant commercials that would more likely close a sale than any traditional commercial roll. This is the new direction of micro targeting that totally blows open doors of audience insight into market trends, confidence, and forecasts.
EXAMPLE A
For example, let’s say, at the start of my break of watching my favorite show, I’m presented with these options:
| · Do you use “Swiffer?” (Yes/No) or
· What else are you shopping for? |
In scenario one, let’s pick the first option and answer (Yes). I’m then asked:
| · What do you like about Swiffer? (POST)
· What would you improve about Swiffer? |
If on a computer or tablet platform, I could begin typing my answers in either of the textboxes provided. When I click submit, my recommendation on “Swiffer” would be posted to the advertiser’s social media profile as well as mine that I set up and agreed to share on when I signed-on for my content provider’s service. The latter survey question would get submitted directly to “Swiffer” as customer feedback.
| · What do you like about Swiffer? (POST)
“It’s quick and easy to clean with” · What would you improve about Swiffer? “Would like have an easier way to discard the cleaning pads without touching them” |
If I was watching from my TV or mobile device, instead I would be given multiple-choice options to select.
| · What do you like about Swiffer? (POST)
o “I like how good my house smells afterwards!” o “I like how light-weight it is!” · What would you improve about Swiffer? o “Add a tab that sticks out so you can grab and peel away pad without getting fingers dirty.” o “Create more scents.” |
Advertisers could provide content providers a greater list of multiple choice that can be rotated through so that way they don’t get “It’s quick and easy to clean with” posted 1 million times on their social media sites.
But let’s say I answered “No” to “Do you use “Swiffer?” in scenario one. Instead I might be presented with options such as these:
| · Learn more about how I can get a cleaner house
· Why don’t you use “Swiffer?” (TV/mobile platform options:) o “I use another product I’m happy with” o “I prefer something more affordable” (Computer/tablet platform option:) · What would you improve about Swiffer? |
I can either click on the first option and sit through a video ad that will inform me about how “Swiffer” can help me and then participate in an optional engagement activity afterwards or I can let “Swiffer” know why I’m not using their product in their simple survey.
EXAMPLE B
Now starting over, for scenario B, let’s say at the start of my commercial break I picked option two, “What else are you shopping for?”
From here I might be presented with a list of questions asking what I may be shopping for in the near future and would select a minimum of, let’s say, three:
| · Are you planning a home improvement project?
· Are you planning on making a large purchase soon? · Are you looking for a new car soon? · Looking for someplace to travel? · Looking for a restaurant for your next date night? |
Based on your selections, a custom ad roll would stream for you based on what would really apply to you.
| o Are you planning a home improvement project? [aka Home Depot]
o Are you planning on making a large purchase soon?[aka Quick Loans] · Are you looking for a new car soon? [aka BMW] · Looking for someplace to travel? [aka Sandals] o Looking for a restaurant for your next date night? [aka Cheesecake Factory] |
As you can imagine, the opportunity for creating custom ad rolls per viewer that can either inform the viewer, provide feedback to the advertiser or build brand reputation through social media posts is where we are headed in the future, if not the next 5 years.
