The :30 Spot: Still Not Dead (In fact, it feels much better).
“Prime-time television and its mighty 30-second commercial were supposed to be in trouble when a new, cutting-edge technology arrived on the scene several years ago, giving viewers a tool to zip past the traditional, on-screen ads. […] In May, General Electric Co. began showing commercials touting the environmental benefits of some of its heavy industrial products, such as jet engines and diesel locomotives. One 30-second spot featured an elephant dancing in a jungle to “Singin’ in the Rain,” as other animals look on. Viewers with DVRs were shown how to pause the commercial at certain moments. When they did, up popped whimsical, fictional biographical information about the animals. Gamers call such hidden content “Easter eggs.” GE calls the project “One-Second Theater,” and it is designed to nudge DVR owners to spend more, rather than less, time with commercials. It worked, according to GE’s research. Viewers spent a little more than two minutes watching and reading the 30-second spots, said GE’s Jonathan Klein, marketing communications leader. So instead of DVR users never seeing the GE spot, as advertisers and networks have feared, “viewers ended up spending over two minutes with the GE brand in front of them,” Klein said.” (Washington Post)
Email Article Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 01:46pm Mack Simpson
Filed under: Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Commercial, TiVo, DVR, General Electric
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