Over the holiday season, I couldn’t help but notice the huge ad blitzes by several companies. The two types of advertisers I remember most vividly are retailers, like Macy’s and Kohl’s, and liquor companies. Clothes and liquor are pretty popular gifts for the holidays, so it makes sense… I also remember reading an article talking about how TiVO has led to the destruction of traditional TV advertising as more and more people are recording shows and fast-forwarding through commercials. Given the millions of dollars companies spent on producing and running ads on TV, they can’t be too thrilled that many of their ads are not being viewed by consumers. The media has termed this the TiVO Effect and you can check out a recent article by Business Week here. 
With the advent of TiVO and YouTube, any ads that are worth watching for pure entertainment / shock value usually end up on YouTube with other worthy content-related videos. This begs the question: What is the future of traditional TV advertising? How will advertisers get their messages across to consumers? I don’t have an answer to this problem. The opportunity here is obviously that advertisers are looking for new channels through which to communicate with consumers. If you can offer them a way to get their messages across and help them avoid the TiVO effect, I’m sure they’d be willing to listen…
