Marketers: Get Your Commercials Seen

For as long as there have been program ratings, marketers have been concerned with how many viewers are watching their commercials. Do they leave the room during the breaks or, for those who record the program, “edit” out the advertising in playback?

According to top line findings from The Council for Research Excellence (CRE), “live” television viewers are equal opportunity evaders. Viewers either switch channels or leave the room during programming content just about as much as they do during commercials or promotional time; both numbers hover close to 30%.  For marketers, this comparable avoidance offers little solace as they are focused on audience delivery for their content, the commercial.

We see a similar relationship when we look at Nielsen “live” commercial ratings and program ratings; viewing is close for both. In network prime, for example, the average “live” rating of the commercials incorporates 95% of the “live” program viewership.

However, with the advent of the DVR and the resulting move to C3 ratings, marketers no longer only exist in the “live” world. Marketer be warned; playback of DVR-recorded content is not equal opportunity viewing for programming and commercials.  During playback, most viewers skip through the commercials and the increasing mass of DVR’s makes this concern even more critical. 

The “one third of all households” often cited as the DVR penetration percentage can be misleading. Many targets that marketers are interested in reaching are actually much more likely to own a DVR. Over half of young homeowners (A25-34) own a DVR, and the number increases to 56% for working women (W18-49, HHI $60K+) and approaches 60% for new car prospects (A25-54, $60K+.)

With the audience in flux, marketers need to optimize their mix to improve the chances that their commercials are seen. Marketers can increase the potency of C3 commercials by understanding each show’s “live” and playback audience contribution and focusing commercials on the minutes that count the most.

“Live” and Playback
Network primetime dramas have been among the most recorded programs since DVR measurement began. In May 2010, while more than half of adults 18-49 in DVR homes recorded network dramas, about 60% of the commercials were never watched. Yet dramas continue to be the dominant genre in primetime, representing more than half of the programs on the fall 2010 network primetime schedule.

Network prime sitcoms are another genre with a high rate of recording and low incidence of commercial playback. Together, network dramas and sitcoms represent three quarters of the shows this coming season, making the networks and the marketers who advertise on them more vulnerable to recording and low commercial playback.

Cable is following suit with dramas comprising roughly three-fourths of its original programs in June and July on networks like TNT, TBS, USA, ABC Family, Lifetime, FX and SYFY.  For example, in the first week of June 2010, Burn Notice and Royal Pains on USA and Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime began their original seasons.  On average, 60% of adults 18-49 in DVR homes recorded the premieres of these three programs. Of those playing back these recordings, about two-thirds of the commercials were never watched.

Prioritizing shows that have a high percentage of live ratings and a higher playback of recorded commercials will increase the chances that viewers see your commercial. This year about 85% of syndication dramas and sitcoms are watched “live,” and of the few that do record, most play back the commercials (72% for dramas, 85% for sitcoms.) One reason for this high level of playback is the short breaks, and more “first minutes” that run in national syndication.

The Minutes that Count the Most
Advertisers may feel they are protected by buying commercial ratings. “Playback is not a concern because we’re only paying for the commercial rating,” one marketer said to me last year. But the C3 rating is an average for the program not for a specific commercial.

Analyses of commercials within programs indicate that there is great variance among commercial positions in a pod. For advertisers looking to maximize commercial viewing, positioning is an important factor to consider. While the amount of “Live” viewing of commercials is fairly stable throughout each commercial break (shown in black below), a close inspection of individual programs indicates that within playback, not all minutes are created equal.  In playback (shown in grey below), the playback for the first minute can be equal to or exceed all the remaining minutes combined.

Therefore, if an advertiser isn’t getting their fair share of “A” and “B” positions, they’re not getting what they’re paying for; especially when it comes to commercial playback.

Inequity of commercial playback ratings by position is not exclusive to network primetime as shown in the following chart for original cable programming.

When advertising in the long pods of network or cable, it is difficult to get first minute positions. In general, syndication’s pods for its Monday- Friday strips are short, with the average pod at about 2.5 minutes, and exclusive national pods coming in at a little over a minute and a half, according to a survey of SNTA members. So the chances of getting first minute positions (“A’s” and “B’s”) are much greater. In the survey, virtually all positions (96%) in our member’s Monday – Friday sitcoms are first minute positions. Other syndication genres’ first minute positions were within the range of 80%.

Understanding the dynamics of commercial viewing is fundamental to advertisers wishing to maximize the return on their advertising investment. “Live” viewing, as both the CRE and Nielsen ratings indicate, have marginal differences between program content and ratings. But beware of the DVR and playback! To truly take advantage of “commercial” ratings and improve the likelihood that your commercials are being seen, get the best available commercial positions and consider vehicles that inherently have higher live viewing, higher playback and more first minute positions.

--Hadassa Gerber, Director of Research, Syndicated Network Television Association (SNTA)

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