Hooked… but released
So, I’m watching American Idol last night – everyone needs a few harmless guilty pleasures – and on comes the Iron Man 2 trailer. Awesome. May 7 will be a great day.
What did I do?
- Went onto the worldwide interweb to watch the trailer again. Of course, made my wife watch it too as soon as she came home.
- Wanted to share it with my friends so sent out a link on Facebook and Twitter to the YouTube page with the trailer.
- Went back to watching the third best show on television: 1. Friday Night Lights, 2. CBS Sunday Morning, 3. American Idol.
Four things came to mind as a result of this experience:
- This challenges a few of my positions in yesterday’s post; although, I was watching one of the highest rated television shows and came across an ad for a product in a high-involvement category (movies). And it just happens to be the sequel for a movie me plus a few million others love. Nonetheless, worked for me and I’m sure a lot of people like me. TV still provides focused scale that can be powerful.
- I’m the integrator and search is my enabler. I conspicuously left search out of my post yesterday and that was wrong. Agencies of the future need to have a core competency in search. Major oversight and many apologies.
- They had me hooked… but they let me go. I was in. Ready to spend many more minutes sharing, commenting, reading and watching everything about Iron Man 2. In my humble opinion, a major opportunity missed. They had me but I don’t think they understood me. They didn’t plan for, either consciously (didn’t want to spend the money or don’t think they need to given the power of the franchise) or unconsciously, how I’d react, what I’d want to do and where I would go. If they had, this brand enthusiast would have done a lot of free work for Iron Man 2. Instead, I went back to American Idol.
- I’m a nerd. I’m watching American Idol and I’m going crazy over a comic book hero movie. My wife appropriately reminded me of this fact.
While this reminded me of the potential power of television, it quickly reinforced the bigger opportunity for digital. Even when I see something on TV during a show I truly like, I immediately go online and have the potential to get immersed for a very long time. Then, of course, I go back to my show, rewind on the DVR and skip over all of the other television ads I missed while I was online.
Do you agree? Disagree? What do you think? (about everything except my nerd status) What should they have done? If the “Third Option” agency existed, what would have been different?
This is huge. Great insight. I regularly experience a similar process for songs that are played in commercials or to get more info on creative commercials etc… I spent at least an hour on the web after viewing Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Should Smell Like”.
Andy
March 11, 2010 at 16:33
Yes TV is still relevant. Besides focused scale though it acts as a catalyst for online behavior. Good TV content be it ads, news or shows have the ability to lurch a person from a passive state to a reactive state. What I’ve said many times in conference room debates about TV and web is that TV is becoming the book cover and web is becoming the book.
Good TV today should teases us just enough to type a URL or ask Google a question. Then at that moment it’s on like Donkey Kong. We can set the user on a path, we can introduce them to a conversation, a story or a tool. You are right there are so many more things Iron Man could have given you once it had you engaged. That’s the current hurdle for brands, how do they manage the depth of the digital experience. We all ready know that it’s possible to be too thin but is it equally possible to be too deep.
ed flynn
March 12, 2010 at 16:09