Better Call Another Ad Strategy

The Ad Model Is Also Uphill

A study hit my feed recently, in which a social media researcher blasted a big hole in the idea that second screening for premium broadcast content was, well, something you actually want to advocate or support, as a marketing and advertising professional. This is something of an anecdotal field, because one person's premium content is another person's meh who cares, especially in an era of niche audiences, but the point is still valid. The stuff that people really care about isn't what they live tweet, because they are too busy, well, watching it.

On some level, like a lot of research, this comes down to an Of Course moment, because it matches our own day to day experiences. Prior to writing this, I finished up the second season of "Better Call Saul," the acclaimed AMC drama and spin-off of "Breaking Bad" that's a personal favorite. As the ending came down, despite the laptop in my hand, a side desire to keep abreast of my baseball fantasy team and the NBA playoffs, along with my buzzing smart phone with other accounts firing...

Well, I only had eyes and ears for the principals of that show, and I'm pretty sure you could have set off the fire alarm in my home, and I'd have still stayed with it. Despite having the ability to pause the proceedings at any time, as I wasn't even watching the episode "live."

But here's where my experience gets unfortunate for the show's producers. I have no recall of any of the "BCS" advertisers. And I really *want* to remember them, because that show is just the best, and I want its monetization strategy to succeed. But, well, it doesn't. Second screens exist to distract the audience from the ads, and even my deep fondness for the show can't beat the hard-wired desire to ignore untargeted broadcast ads and remain productive during down time. Especially with deadlines pending and other tasks to complete. I'm busy. And when you've got a second screen, everyone can be.

Which turns into yet another moment that makes sports the be-all and end-all of broadcast, because it's the only content that is simultaneously engaging and yet has clear diversion moments that you can't really avoid. Not to mention the criticizing fun of live-tweeting a game, which does happen, in spades.

But the bigger point is still in play, which is that the age-old marketing and advertising value exchange of getting involved with prestige shows... might be a terrible play. Well, I'm not sure it's a defensible play, honestly. In terms of ad recall, the NBA tie-ins for the rest of my evening's viewing experience were much higher in my consciousness, even if they were not well-regarded. I didn't want to remember those ads, but since there were so much more of them, and they were much harder to avoid, they're in my head. Not to mention the simple fact that a game is going to last two hours, versus "BCS" one. The entire second season of "BCS" was matched by just my weekend of playoff hoop.

Which is the kind of message that few in the field are going to want to admit to, because the alternatives -- saturation messaging on second-tier networks and platforms, and frankly down-market moves like product placement -- just have little appeal. But data isn't something that leads to a human grease element, personal taste, or unprovable benefits. In the long run, it's hard not to see how the commerce goes elsewhere, the content doesn't get more into a pay for play model, or the product placement doesn't get way more over the top. We may be in a so-called golden age of television programming right now, but what works from an artistic level really isn't working from an advertising one.

Because what we're doing now just seems like an increasingly indefensible business model, and unprotectable from market forces. The well-viewed 30-second spot at the end of an act break isn't sacrosanct, and neither is the next move to supplement it.

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