Revolutionizing TV Commercials: Can It Revitalize A Shrinking Market?

Culture

from the do-people-still-watch-TV-ads? dept

While many people look at Google’s ability to present more relevant ads as the real revolution of their advertising success, another aspect that is often overlooked was the ease of creating an advertisement. Before Google, most companies or individuals who wanted to put an ad online had to go through a cumbersome process — often involving calling someone. It was extremely inefficient. With Google’s AdWords, however, suddenly just about anyone could create and post an ad using self-service tools. That opened up the market tremendously, creating the market that Google is now cashing in on nicely. A few months ago, when talk started spreading about Google’s plans to get into TV advertising (and newspaper advertising), we wondered if the same efficiencies would be present. Again, though, we mostly focused on the relevancy aspect — and wondered whether or not it could be copied in the TV world (something Robert Cringely seems to be betting on, though we’re less optimistic). We did mention that Google could make the underlying process of buying and managing TV ad space more efficient, but we weren’t sure how much that would help.

However, it seems like another company, Spot Runner, may have beaten them to the punch and done a fairly impressive job of it. Silicon Beat has the details of how Spot Runner is trying to jumpstart the local TV ad business by making it extremely easy for local businesses to get ads on TV cheaply — in some ways, doing exactly what Google did for online ads. Their system even lets people pick from stock video with customizable voiceovers — though, you have to wonder about the quality and the fact that others may be using identical video (even if you can get exclusive rights in certain markets). Reading through the details, it actually does seem like the type of thing you’d expect Google to do in this market (and maybe they are…). Of course, there’s another major difference between TV commercials and online advertising. Online advertising was a medium that was set to grow. TV commercials, on the other hand, appear to be facing a lot of pressure, as viewers are no longer the captive audience they once were. So, the real question may be which force will be stronger: the “growth” of the market as services like Spot Runner open up the market to many new players, or the shrinking of the market due to people no longer watching 30 second spots.