Ads you want to see?

TiVo, which is about the worst thing that ever happened to TV advertisers, has recently launched a new service called TiVo Product Watch that should serve as a bit of a (paid) olive branch to the companies whose ads have routinely been skipped by TiVo users.

MarketingVox reports that:

TiVo today launched its new advertising search product, TiVo Product Watch, offering advertisers a new way to reach highly valued in-market consumers - those TiVo subscribers who are actively looking for products - with advertising content and information. Some 70 advertisers and 100 leading brands have signed up at launch. TiVo subscribers will be able to create searches, including their favorite brands, and select advertising content ranging from one minute to 60 minutes.

At launch, General Motors, Sony Pictures, Lending Tree and Kraft Foods will be among the premium advertisers for their respective advertising categories. Examples of content range from cooking demonstrations from Kraft Foods, to understanding the impact of different types of mortgages from Lending Tree, to behind-the-scenes movie trailers from Sony Pictures and new automotive features and aesthetic options from General Motors.

[You can read more about Product Watch here.]

I don’t know how I feel about this.

On the one hand, I love my TiVo for many reasons, not the least of which is that I don’t have to watch commercials. I can watch an hour-long show in 40 minutes (even less if it’s “American Idol”). My viewing experience is not interrupted by unwanted commercials.  And overall, it helps mitigate the saturation effect of today’s society, which bombards the average American with 3,500-5,000 marketing messages a day.  So I would expect that very few TiVo viewers, who undoubtedly appreciate the device’s attributes as much as I do, would actually opt to watch the ads on TiVo.

On the other hand, I actually appreciate ads when they are for something that I am looking for.  I also appreciate good ads, or ads with useful, engaging, or unexpected content.  (Hey, I used to work in advertising, so I am not completely opposed to the industry.)  So maybe this could work after all.  By targeting people who in fact want to see their ads, and by providing them with useful, fun content (cooking demonstrations, behind-the-scenes movie footage) these advertisers may in fact be reaching a pretty receptive audience.

It appears that the advertisers who have signed up with Product Watch realize that it is better to have an interested audience than a mass audience.

BizofShowbiz thinks that this is a brilliant move by TiVo:

I'm not big on looking at advertising, but I've got to hand it to TiVo that this is brilliant. They take away the ads from the advertisers, then sign them up to take a piece of the pie. I don't know if this was planned from the beginning, but I like it.

I was wondering what TiVo was going to do with the advent of video on demand coming fast. Even now, with this good move, I'm not sure what their long-term success will be. But for now they've skillfully made a move that will propel them even further ahead of their competitors.

I’ll be very curious to see where this project goes.