TiVo: Ads that are watched

While you may think that with an option to fast-forward through those irritating commercials would make people not pay a second glance to any ad, results from TiVo’s Stop||Watch rating service suggests otherwise. Wondering which are those commercials that make DVR owners press the ‘play’ button voluntarily? Read on.

 Apart from regular on-coming movie commercials that make one pause, certain everyday household products also have people reaching out for the ‘play’ button. The survey which was conducted this May revealed some interesting insights into the mind of the DVR owner. Only two of the top ten least fast-forwarded commercials were movie commercials. These were- “Sex in the City” and “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan”. The appearance of even these two in the top ten list might be attributed to May being an important period for film marketers with the coming summer releases.

Topping the list was a Dominoes Pizza commercial. An E-Trade Financial commercial came in next with “Zohan” in the third and “Sex in the City” in the fourth place. These were followed by the following commercials in the same order-SC Johnson & Son, American Express, Thompson’s Water Sealant, Macy’s and lastly Honda Pilot.

While media analysts had believed that only entertainment oriented commercials (trailers, movies etc.) would be high on a users viewing list, the results of the survey have taken everyone by surprise. This is because these include supposedly undesirable ads pertaining to financial services, restaurant, credit card, retail, pharmaceutical and automotive etc. An unusual but nevertheless pleasant surprise, wouldn’t you say?