Are Buyers Missing Your TV Message?

By Jack R. Nerad
April 24, 2006

The TiVo Effect is just beginning to catalyze necessary changes in auto marketing. Kbb.com's exec market analyst explores the new era of the auto ad.

I admit it: I'm a TiVo user. In fact, some of my friends would describe me as a TiVo advocate, or maybe even a fanatic. Maybe that is because I think TiVo ranks right up there with important 20th century inventions like individually wrapped slices of cheese and the ZipLock bag.

But this isn't about me. The reverence I have for TiVo, and the concept of digital video recording in general, has some serious consequences for marketers in the automotive industry, and it goes far beyond the fact that there is the potential that fewer people will watch TV ads in the future.

The entire commercial television model is in the process of being turned on its ear. Why? Because, like millions of others, I have become my own TV programmer -- the Fred Silverman of my individual life. Instead of simply viewing programs served up to me by the various broadcast, cable and independent TV stations when they appear on the tube, I now "download" programs from these entities so I can watch them when I want to. Though right now all the shows that I collect this way are broadcast on conventional network TV or cable networks (in my case a huge misnomer, since I get all my TiVo'ed programs via DirectTV satellite), it really doesn't matter to me if these shows were broadcast or not. If I could download them in another way that would make the process faster and easier for me -- say on some giant server somewhere that contains All Video Content Ever Made (avcem.com?) -- I would be just as likely to do it that way.

So what, you might rightly ask, does this have to do with the automobile business? Well, if I might be so bold, it has a couple of things to do with the automobile business-- things that could rock the foundations of the old model.

Since the box containing the cathode ray tube was invented and became one of America's largest and most pervasive businesses, the auto ad has been among its biggest staples. OEM advertising fills the coffers of the networks, and dealer advertising fills the coffers of the local broadcasters. Thus it has always been (at least for the last 50 years). But in the wake of TiVo, iTunes and Google Video, and in anticipation of a not-far-off day when each of us can and will gather video entertainment and information in a whole new way (likely by various forms of downloading), that symbiotic relationship goes out the window.

For the last five decades, the synergy of mass market entertainment and mass market advertising has funded the creation of an unfathomable amount of content while at the same time delivering a consumer audience of incredible size. Big-buck advertising paid for big-buck shows, and big-buck shows delivered big-buck audiences. Networks were happy; car companies were happy and consumers were happy. Oh, sure there was moaning all around -- networks whined about advertisers wanting to control content; advertisers whined about rates climbing higher and higher and consumers whined about the quality of some TV programs -- but it all seemed to work just fine.

Now, be ready to enter the new era. As a faithful TiVo user, I barely notice commercials. No, they're not invisible to me; they're there as I fast-forward through them, and they're readily available to me should I want to watch them. In fact, I can view them over and over if I so choose. But they are not in my face, which might imply that they have far less impact on me than they would if they were in my face-- you know, the way they were over the last 50+ years.

So what does this mean for the auto industry? It means OEMs and dealers must seek out other ways of reaching these masses of potential customers. And you can bet that reaching them in the kind of numbers that are desired won't be nearly as easy as it was through mass-market TV. If cable networks splintered the audience into smaller groups, be prepared for that audience to be splintered even further. And while this implies many positives for the internet, it also suggests new challenges to the concept of the website. In the future will people want to visit sites? Or will they want to find the information/entertainment that is most relevant to them RIGHT NOW without navigating a site?

How do you reach potential buyers in this increasingly Balkanized audience? I think you do it by providing information consumers want when they want it on the platform they want to use. What do they want? My experience tells me they want less fluff and more facts from authoritative sources they can trust. This is almost impossible to accomplish in a 30-second TV spot, but very possible in an Internet video presentation or a video-on-demand from cable, satellite, telecom and Web download. At the same time, we can't discount messages that stir the emotions because, as much as consumers claim their vehicle purchases are rational, in reality emotion is a major driver.