TakeAway: To combat DVR and channel surfing, marketers have started placing messages in the corner of the TV screen during shows … sometimes even animating the messages.
Interesting approach: build goodwill by being annoying …
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Excerpt from AdAge: “Latest Tactic to Take Over TV: the ‘Bug’”
Marketers have long since realized they need to develop a few new weapons for their arsenal. Product placement is fast becoming passe.
One solution? Playing with bugs.
Yes, “bugs,” those TV-network logos that rest quietly in one of the bottom corners of the boob tube, are becoming ripe for promoting more than just the CW logo or the CBS “eye.”
This season, both the CW and Fox have allowed sponsors to post messages around and even in their logos.
On Fox, DirecTV has informed viewers during the first few seconds of “Terra Nova” through a display in the bottom right corner of the screen that the company helps to bring the program to viewers in “Fox High Def.”
Rising interest in the smallest corners of TV-screen real estate suggests advertisers believe viewers are growing even more resistant to their normal commercials.
“There are advertisers who are concerned about losing ratings to growing DVR playback and who want the networks to provide reach that cannot by skipped.,” ….
TV networks aren’t likely to make their bugs available without a substantial ad buy already in place.
Bing had signed up for an extensive package that included the CW producing individual videos featuring actors and behind-the-scenes talent from its prime-time lineup to air during commercial breaks.
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