For Advertisers, Less May Be More

Aug. 5, 2005 — -- TiVo Inc. announced last month that it was adding a feature to its digital video recording devices that will insert advertising symbols into television commercial breaks, even as customers fast-forward through them. Suspiciously absent from the announcement was any recognition that most TiVo customers would likely say skipping commercials is one of the great joys of DVRs.

The TiVo announcement was just the latest sign that advertisers face an uphill battle to connect with a jaded public. Ironically, the advance of technology, once hailed by the marketing industry as a means of better spreading commercial messages, now offers many ways for consumers to avoid them -- fast-forwarding through commercials, installing spam blockers to e-mail accounts and signing up for federal telephone no-call lists.

The more advertising venues marketers have discovered -- from radio to television to telemarketing to the Internet -- the more consumers have become fed up with the invasiveness of ads.

"People's opinions about marketing and advertising has changed for the worse, and that change has accelerated the last few years," said J. Walker Smith, president of Yankelovich Partners, a consulting firm that works with Fortune 500 marketing and advertising firms. "Technology has been the precipitating factor because now people can block out ads they don't want to see."

Known in the industry as "consumer resistance" or "consumer avoidance," the problem presents marketing companies with a unique challenge: How do you reach consumers who are actively working to avoid your messages? And though it appears to be getting worse, Smith said few have been willing to make wholesale changes to their practices.

"They're all learning about the new marketplace, and some have taken some small steps to address the issue. But it's difficult to develop an entirely different business model," he said.