The Remote and DVRs

I was reading an article on how to write effective blog posts for a class I’m teaching and the writer mentioned that in the 1980s, very few people had a remote control for their TV. Just 10 years later, almost everyone had a remote. Suddenly, it wasn’t any effort at all to change the channel.  Gone were the jokes about making your kids do it, etc. and in came the “channel surfing” ones. All of a sudden people writing shows and commercials had to account for people changing the channel. And it changed everything.

One thing that is in the process of changing now is how the DVR will change things again. Now, you don’t ever sit through commercials because you can fast forward. Unless there is something that makes you stop and go back. That thing that catches your attention as it flies by. It is a whole different style. And on a side note: to the diaper company that shows in their commercials where their dappers fit and how other brands are larger, when I fast forward it looks like the baby is filling its pants and I don’t appreciate it. Thanks for thinking about that.

So what does it mean?  It means on TV shows you get, “coming up…” right before a commercial break and a couple seconds of the content that happened before the break in case you didn’t stop at exactly the right point. It means commercials need to get smart and do things that will get your attention because as the Super Bowl proves, we all love good commercials.  And for those of us who don’t advertise on TV, it means looking at what is working and what isn’t in the “expensive” media and moving it down to your marketing.  A video can be effective because we are now used to seeing what we want on demand.  Thinking about what your user is doing before or after they get to your content can help you structure it properly, etc.

Being aware of how things change can help keep you looking toward the future in your marketing efforts.  Don’t be that diaper commercial that gives a bad visual because they aren’t thinking about the technology.  Instead, be someone who uses the technology to their advantage.