One second commercial

Catering to the ever dwindling attention span and capitalizing on its name, One Second breath freshener has placed a one second commercial during every commercial break on every TV station in Belgium yesterday. I think the blipverts on Network 23 were 5 seconds.

“High-speed commercials condensed into a few seconds that prevent channel changing and embed themselves in viewer’s minds. Sometimes they cause the heads of viewers to explode.”

Ad dollars moving online

“This year the combined advertising revenues of Google and Yahoo! will rival the combined prime-time ad revenues of Americas three big television networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, predicts Advertising Age. It will, says the trade magazine, represent a watershed moment in the evolution of the internet as an advertising medium. A 30-second prime-time TV ad was once considered the most effectiveand the most expensiveform of advertising. But that was before the internet got going.”

Economist.com on an article in this week’s Advertising Age. More of the same at Yahoo!

Bob Garfield’s Chaos Scenario

“In the April 4 print edition of Advertising Age, columnist Bob Garfield laid out a sweeping vision of an advertising industry caroming toward chaos and disruption wrought by the digital media revolution. Boiled down, his theory goes something like this:

The marketing industry is currently whistling past the graveyard and largely ignoring signs of massive, fundamental changes in how the business of mass marketing will be conducted in the near future. The broadcast TV model is working less well each year and will eventually cave in on itself as it reaches ever-fewer viewers with a fare of low-quality programming and mind-numbing clutter. Marketers will increasingly abandon it. But despite their glitzy promise, the aggregate of new digital technologies — from Web sites and e-mail to cell phone content and video on demand — lack the infrastructure or scale to support the minimum amount of mainstream marketing required to smoothly sustain the U.S. economy. The result, as the old systems are abandoned and the insufficient new systems struggle to carry an impossible advertising load, is what Garfield calls “The Chaos Scenario” — a period of serious disruption moving like a tsunami through the marketing business as well as the economy and the broader society itself.”

I’ve been unable to find the full article but did find a report about the article (audio – transcript) at OntheMedia.org.

I might have mentioned this before but it bears repeating. My dad was a radio guy for 30+ years and I’ve been at it –in one form or another– for 33 years. Radio has been “berry, berry good to me.” And during the dozen years I worked in local radio, I estimate I wrote and/or produced 60,000 commercials. And I believed they “worked” for the advertisers who paid for them. And they believed they worked. And many of them did work. But I now wonder if wasn’t a little like believing the wine turned into blood. A matter of faith, based on… faith. Commercial transubstantiation.

Word of mouth was probably always more effective than radio or TV or newspaper ads. But how many people can one person talk to in a day? Not so many in 1955. In 2005… with a website… you can reach a lot of folks. And when Doc Searls says he likes this IBM Thinkpad, I believe him. Or Halley Suitt recommends an author. Or Chris Pirillo tells me he likes his iRiver mp3 player… I believe them. Because I “know” and trust them.

When I’m shopping for a (fill in the blank), I go online and read the reviews of real people. And yes, some shrewd marketing type could spoof me with a bogus review, but a hundred (a thousand!) others would have a different opinion. It’s getting hard to lie/exagerate/bullshit your way to a sale. Bob Garfield said it much better:

“The total democratization of media, combined with ultra-targeted ads consumers actually opt to see. We, the people, cease to be demographics. We become individuals again.”

Radio ad spending in decline

In an article on RealMoney.com, Cody Willard steers investors away from big broadcast companies:

“… the tens of billions of dollars spent on radio advertising are in a steady, secular decline, and that’s not pretty for those companies that have depended on those models for revenue, nor for those companies that have depended on that outlet to deliver their message.”

I spotted one positive nugget in his piece:

“Regional radio is coming back and will find its niche again. But the days of big radio are over.”

I don’t know if Mr. Willard is right and I’m not sure what –if anything– this will mean for the company I work for. But I’m a “small radio” guy at heart and have no tears for the Big Broadcasters. Nor do they need any. They’ve made their millions and it’s safely tucked away in some off-shore tax haven.

“Advertising in the Age of Podcasts Manifesto”

“We’re seeking out commercial information all the time. When you look up a movie review, or choose a plane flight, shop for an apartment, pick a restaurant or review your stock portfolio, you are seeking commercial information. So, therefore, there’s nothing particularly bad about commercials.”

— Dave Winer’s Advertising-in-the-age-of-podcasts Manifesto

Radio “schedule integrity”

“Compared to other media, spot radio ranked No. 8 and network radio ranked No. 10 in schedule integrity behind magazines, newspapers, network TV, spot TV, outdoor, syndicated TV, cable TV and Internet. Agencies and advertisers also had less confidence in the accuracy and timeliness of radio affidavits to prove ads ran as ordered than in the affidavits from network TV, spot TV and newspapers.” [Mediaweek story]

From Radio Advertising Bureau’s annual perceptual study (funded by Arbitron):

Cadillac to launch series of five second commercials

Max Headroom introduced us to Blipverts. “High-speed commercials condensed into a few seconds that prevent channel changing and embed themselves in viewer’s minds. Sometimes they cause the heads of viewers to explode. “

On January 15, Cadillac will launch a series of five second commercials to illustrate the speed of its cars which can accelerate from zero to 60 in that short time. The ads include a voiceover which says, “How fast? That Fast.” [Adrants]