Transcript Ad Skippers Beware

Lena Guseva
Mike Hoffman
Katie Hellman

Ask.com created an ad
campaign that relies on
“crawls” which show up at
the bottom of your favorite
cable programs.
- Asks viewers questions about the
show they are watching
▪ A trivia question sponsored by
Kleenex shows up at a particularly
sad moment during a movie on
TNT.
▪ Pose a legal query during an
episode of "Law & Order”

There is an ever-increasing number of viewers
armed with fast-forwarding DVRs who skip the
ads that support the programs they love to
watch.
 About 30.5% of households with TVs will have DVRs
by the end of this year- Interpublic's Magna
 Thought to rise to 44% by the end of 2014

"The reality is consumers can't have it both
ways. They can't have content for free and
content without advertising,"
- John Moore, director-ideas and innovations at Interpublic Group's Mullen


TV networks use snipes to
regularly promote their
own comedies and dramas
During first-run episodes of
"Heroes”, NBC ran ads for
movies such as "American
Gangster" and "Evan
Almighty” produced by an
NBC Universal sibling
studio. (VID)

There is an increase in audience flow from one
program to the next when in- content
messaging is used to ‘flag up’ the next program
coming along

Promos during shows can also drive an
immediate spike in traffic to a network's website
- Guy Slattery, senior VP-marketing for the A&E and Bio cable channels.

By monitoring website traffic and queries
coming in Ask.com is already seeing results from
the in-show displays
- Jim Safka Ask.com CEO

"It's a delicate balance between breakthrough
and intrusiveness," said Bruce Lefkowitz, exec
VP, Fox Cable Entertainment Networks. "If
you cross that line, viewers are going to tell
you. They're going to vote with their remote."
 With every popping logo or pitch the viewer might
throw up his or her arms and watch a DVD.

"Ad Skippers Beware: Ask.com Going After You With
TV Crawl - Advertising Age - MediaWorks."
Advertising Age is the leading global source of
news, intelligence and conversation for marketing
and media communities. 01 Mar. 2009
<http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=1
34951>.