It’s an amusing spot, but is sure to raise the hackles of broadcast networks even more. In the latest effort, Dish is bringing back the Boston crew for a new campaign starting 2/11 to promote the new Hopper with Sling DVR (which lets viewers watch live or recorded TV on web-connected devices). One commercial in the multi-million dollar national effort shows them paying their last respects to commercials: “Now that we have the Hopper, we can watch commercial-free TV. Commercials are out of our lives.”
This, as the big four TV networks are suing Dish, charging that the Hopper and AutoHop commercial skipper violate copyright law.
“We have evolved the advertising,” James Moorhead, chief marketing officer at Dish, told AdAge. “When we first started with the Boston guys, it was them shouting out the features of the device. Now it is less about rattling off the features and more about showing exactly how the Hopper improves lives.”
The campaign includes print and three 30-second TV spots.
The broadcast networks battle against the Hopper has led them to refuse to run its ads, Moorhead said: “We’ve encountered some of this before, so it’s not new, and we’ve learned to navigate it quite well from a marketing perspective.”
He added that Dish has increased its brand awareness up to 70%, the highest in its history.
RBR-TVBR observation: The Boston crew is hilarious, as par…but the bottom line is the commercial skipping only works with delayed viewing on broadcast networks. That’s hardly saying goodbye to commercials. However, if Dish wins the legal battle with ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, what’s to stop them from employing AutoHop on all cable networks as well? What will that do to the attractiveness of television advertising in the marketplace?
