DVR Has Nothing on this Commercial

Anyone who has ever met me knows my affinity for TV. There is nothing better than coming home after a long day of work and a run than sitting down on my couch, dinner in hand, and watching one my shows.

Like many other Americans, eight out of ten to be exact, I tend to DVR a show or watch it via Netflix, DVD, on-demand or HBOGo. According to a recent eMarketer article, of those eight consumers, 41% did so through cable or satellite on-demand, 40% did so through streaming and 37% used a recording device like a DVR. For the sake of this story, we are going to concentrate on that 37%.

If someone records a show on their DVR, chances are, they are fast forwarding through the commercials. Clearly, advertisers are not happy about this and have been paying the price this past decade. Until now, ad buyers and sellers had no response. Volkswagen just changed the game.

As you can see from the video, the commercial is viewed almost identically in regular time vs. fast forwarding. How are they the first ones to come up with this?

This tactic doesn’t mean much to marketers, but perhaps advertisers will now look for more creative ways to bypass the obstacles of our society.

Agencies, here comes the money.