Oh yeah, people love pop-ups. That’s what makes the internet so exciting.
Maybe advertisers can team up with the folks at TopText to develop new technology to automatically change the channel to the Home Shopping Network any time Salad Shooters are mentioned in a movie, or… maybe they can insert a big purple CGI ape into all the shows that makes context-based product pitches while relaying your viewing habits and mailing-address back to advertisers.
Gosh, maybe now that TV is catching up with all the extra benefits of the internet, I’ll get cable again.
Or perhaps I’ll go a tequila-and-amphetamine-fueled tri-provincial killing-spree, and then remove my genitals with a power-sander. Yeah, that sounds like more fun, actually.
Wow, someone here predicted those ads a few weeks back. I think it was in a thread about some dork equating using TiVo to record shows sans commercials to stealing.
If they MUST show us adverts then I’d prefer this new method. It would mean we have something to watch while we are ignoring the ads.
The problem with internet popups is that they are in the way and clutter the computer. TV popups would not obscure anything and there’s no issue of extra resources being used or clutter.
Please don’t kick me. I am as anti-adverts as the next person.
Speaking as a guy with many years of experience in advertising, particularly in the area of emerging ad vehicles, I can tell you that it’s likely you’ll see more ideas akin to pop-up TV ads.
A few years back, the ad industry witnessed the launch of TiVo and ReplayTV. At the time, the ad industry wasn’t too worried, as PVRs (Personal Video Recorders) didn’t have the household penetration to pose a serious threat to the broadcast advertising model.
However, the ad industry is now beginning to take PVRs a lot more seriously. This has helped fuel interest and development in things like product placement and Interactive TV, which presumably are unaffected by PVRs’ ability to zap commercials.
I’ve moderated discussion panels on iTV and PVRs, including one at last year’s @d:tech show in New York (a popular trade show highlighting technology in advertising). At my last agency job, my boss directed me to educate the rest of the agency on iTV, as the threat to the traditional broadcast advertising model was becoming clear.
Ad agencies are all looking at new ways to integrate advertising and sponsorships with TV content, such that PVR users become less of a threat to the ad-supported model. That’s why you’re seeing things like the TV pop-up ads discussed in the OP. As the agencies experiment, they’re bound to go in directions that rub the consumer the wrong way. Advertising is designed to be intrusive and to command attention, so it’s no surprise to me that advertisers are trying to push the envelope at this point to gauge the limits of what they’re able to get away with.
Ad agencies historically have exploited things that are new and unexpected. This is another driver behind the whole TV pop-up ad thing. The idea is that the novelty factor will help make the commercial message more memorable, as it’s being delivered in a new way.
My point with all this? There’s a threat to the traditional broadcast ad model. Ad agencies are looking for ways to neutralize the threat. Expect to see plenty of cockamamie ideas over the next few years along the lines of reaching TV viewers in new ways. You will like some of them, probably hate many of them, and find others marginally acceptable.
Aren’t we eventually headed toward all-pay-TV anyway? HBO’s doing pretty well for themselves, and their only advertising is self-promotion in between programs. And given the high quality of the stuff they produce, I’ll cheerfully watch at least one of their bumper breaks to see what else they’ve got coming up.
I mean, if I were able to call the cable company, and say, “I’ll subscribe to the National Geographic channel for 60 cents a week, and BBC America for 80 cents a week, and Discovery Science for 60 cents a week, and…”
Because if advertising gets any more intrusive and annoying, we’re going to pass the threshold of tolerance: TV will be too obnoxious, in sum, to put up with. Many people, indeed, we’ve passed that point already. Me, I think there’s just enough quality here and there to warrant retaining the idiot box (can you say “Buffy”?), and a more market-oriented approach may very well separate the quality stuff from the crap.
How many TV shows would you actually be willing to pay for, really? Especially in order to get rid of the advertising?
Thinking about it again, though, I wonder if Salon may prove to be an effective counterexample, in terms of their difficulties convincing people to pay a few bucks to skip the popups and inserted banners. Hmmm…
The TV popup ads won’t obscure anything now. Neither did internet ads when they first appeared - as banner ads similar to those being proposed for TV. As soon as the TV advertisers realize that people are ignoring the unobtrusive popups, they will resort to more intrusive forms. Why? Simple - they want you to be watching the ads, that’s why they’re paying for them. They couldn’t care less if that interferes with your viewing of the television show - unless the ad convinces you to turn your television off completely.
The ads will become just as intrusive as the public will tolerate; only when viewership goes down because of overly intrusive advertising will the advertisers back off (because then the ads are no longer serving their purpose).
And TV popups WILL use extra resources, in that they reduce the effective size of your TV screen. They may not be covering anything up, but the image will have to be smaller in order to allow the necessary space for the popup ad.
I suspect that Cervaise is right, unfortunately, and that the price of minimal ad TV will be an all-pay service. (I would say “no ad” TV , but given that ads are now showing up in such places as movie theaters, and even channels such as AMC which built their reputation as “minimal ads” channels are adding more advertisements, I suspect that premium “no ad” TV will never be a reality, regardless of how much the consumer might be willing to pay for it.)
How long before people find a way to filter out those ads. With regard to the internet pop up ads, some browsers have an option that lets you turn them off. TiVo became a marketable commodity because some people were absolutely sick of watching commercials. I’m sure if they implement TV popups, someone will figure out a way to get rid of them.
Whoever managed to have a advert pop-up on my computer screen just now while I was reading this thread, please stop such nonsense. It is not appreciated.
My WAG: In the future, you’ll subscribe to TV programs, and when you get them they’ll still have some form of advertising in them. Either pre-emptive, parallel, or some combination of both.
Ok so they put up these fricken pop ups… then I don’t want any full ads… Give me full half hour and hour long programs without interuptions… Or give me a fricken filter on my non PVR reciever so that I won’t see these idiotic things. Is it not bad enough I have to be distracted by the Station logo burned in in the corner!!!
Whoa! Thanks for pointing that out, mobo. That’s the weirdest thing. (I have the doubleclick server blocked, so I don’t see the banner ads.)
I went back to check how the hell that happened, and it seems that (in the Opera browser,) the address of the banner-ad is forced into the address bar when you view the article. I can’t believe that I didn’t notice the obviously wrong URL when I cut & pasted it. I didn’t try to follow the link when I previewed, because it showed as a “visited” link, so I assumed it was correct.
That doesn’t happen with IE or Mozilla, so I assume it’s Opera’s problem and not a deliberate thing by the Atlanta Journal.
Thanks again for providing the corrected link. :smack:
I can’t remember where but I seem to recall that some country (Sweden?) has no ads during programming but rather places advertising in a block of time to be watched all at once. It may sound crazy but IIRC people actually did watch the advertising and in sufficient numbers to make the advertisers feel it was worthwhile. I’m sure if it was tried in the US for awhile people would rejoice and never watch the things. However, I have a feeling that eventually people would realize that they do in fact want some product information and might tune in now and again. Additionally, it would drive advertisers to be even more creative to make the ads entertaining or informative enough to actually watch.
On the whole I understand advertising and will live with it as a necessary cost for TV programming. However, as my TV viewing becomes less and less free (cable charges, premium channels, extra money for certain miscellaneous channels) I am less tolerant of advertisers intruding and feel more than ok zipping past commercials with my Tivo. It really pisses me off to see ads in a movie theater where I have specifically paid to see a movie and not a fucking sales pitch that I have no option of skipping.
To me TV popup ads are obscene. I have already ‘paid’ for the show by having 20 minutes of the hour devoted to commercials. Now I have to be subjected to them during a show? I can promise that any show I watch that has these will be immediately turned off. If they become so ubiquitous that they are on all channels I will do my level best to stick to the premium channels and PBS.
Not crazy at all, and you’re right. Think about how many people actually look forward to the ads shown during the Superbowl - and how much effort companies put into creating those ads.
And that’s why these ads are so stupid - by annoying viewers, they manage to a) turn off many potential customers of the product being advertised, and b) increase the rate at which people abandon network television for alternative forms of entertainment. It’s a true lose/lose situation, for all three parties - the advertisers, the networks, and the viewing public. Like everything else in life, moderation is the key - and those companies and broadcast networks that indulge in excessive advertising will die a slow, lingering death, victims of ad gluttony. And this viewer says good riddance!
I find DOGs incredibly, incredibly, annoying as it is - I just cannot concentrate on the show when there’s something to read. I’m also worried that this kind of thing might spread onto DVDs … then there’d be no escape.