Kia Ora TiVo

Mike Carney from the Media Council writes about the launch of TiVo in New Zealand.

Although TiVo won’t start operating in New Zealand until Christmas this year (actual launch date not yet specified, but we’re picking early November to tap into the pre-Christmas gift-buying season), the company and its one-third shareholder TVNZ are keen to drum up support for the TiVo from the advertising industry. That might seem a forlorn hope, given that TiVo and its ilk are viewed in some sectors of advertising as industry-destroyers and home-wreckers — but clearly TVNZ et al. don’t have the same point of view. read more

Most interesting, but not surprisingly, he observes that understanding your audience is still the most vital component of effective advertising.

In a live study of 55 US national ads, TiVo and Innerscope found that TV viewers are 25 percent more likely to fast-forward through ads with low emotional engagement than those with high emotional engagement. The data clearly suggest that ads that are more emotionally engaging are more likely to be viewed in their entirety even in a time-shifted environment. The findings, presented in March at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Annual Conference, show that sustaining viewers requires an understanding of their emotional engagement with an ad.