Picture this scene, for example. A TV commercial for any top-of-the-range whisky flighted at a time when the target market is relaxed and sitting at home taking in some fairly mindless, bubblegum for the eyes TV programme.
Good planning - particularly if the ad happens to be more appealing than the programme. Chances are the target market will be very commercially receptive and ready to accept and act on the message.
Branding hits home because by being in a commercially receptive mode the target market will file the information away in the sub-conscious.
Now let’s take that same ad and flight it during the final half hour of the US Master Golf Championship. Not a bad idea, the TV stations will argue. As the last two-ball tees off on the last hole in what is pretty much always a needle match, there is nowhere for the TV cameras to go for the two minutes it takes for them to walk from the tee to play their next shot because everyone else has finished the round.
So what better time, the TV station’s argument continues, to flight your ad because that’s when millions and millions of viewers are literally glued to their TV sets and not going anywhere?
Wrong.
The problem here is that while those millions may well be glued to their TV sets and risking renal failure by not daring to go to the lavatory and miss something, they are most certainly not commercially receptive.
They are in a frame of mind that will accept only the golf and no other distraction. Quite apart from the fact that the less patient among them will roundly curse the commercials and the disruption they are causing, thus having a negative impact on the brand and more likely is that even the most patient and laidback among them will simply not remember any sort of message.
Frankly, all they want to do is watch those two players walking up the fairway, no matter how boring it might seem. They want to watch body language, crowd reaction and any little nuance that could give them a clue to which one is going to win. Quite apart from which, when these ad breaks kick in, viewers assume that they must be missing something which in itself is a negative reaction and which again mitigates against anyone being commercially receptive.
The same applies to certain out of home advertising. I find it quite remarkable that so many advertisers will insist on putting phone numbers and other contact details along with “act now” messages on light pole ads and billboards on busy freeways and feeder roads.
While most motorists might well see the ads they are in no way commercially receptive to anything because their minds immediately move back to the business of driving at speed with the result that the ad message doesn’t go into the subconscious - it just disappears completely.
This doesn’t mean that all outdoor advertising on freeways doesn’t work. Not all – it’s great for brand-building and in places where the traffic is less hectic, it can also provide a valuable distraction from sitting in a traffic jam.
The list goes on an on of places where one doesn’t find commercially receptive consumers.
Take sports stadiums, for example. Now, this is a great place to advertise and modern technology has led to some wonderful innovations like big screens and rolling signboards. But, I have a problem with media owners and agencies who sell stadium advertising on the strength of TV viewership.
Because TV viewers generally don’t get to see the stadium until some action has started, even if it is just marching bands and pom-pom girls. And of course when the real sporting action starts, TV viewers are certainly not commercially receptive and while they might visually take in a billboard, the next piece of sporting action will obliterate it from their minds.
But, stadium advertising is great for what it was always originally intended and that is to catch the attention of the crowd that is there on the spot. The not-so-subtle difference between commercially receptive and non-commercially receptive consumers is overlooked far too often in media planning but it makes a monumental difference to the efficiency of it all.
Far too many media owners, in my opinion, just flog their advertising space on the basis that if people see it they’ll act on it.
And if you don’t buy this “commercially receptive” stuff , test it out next time you’re watching sport on TV or driving down a busy freeway with someone.
Test them on ads they should have seen only a few seconds before - it’ll open your eyes no end.
