Video Killed the Video Star
SUPER Bowl 2007. Eid in the US as the whole nation is glued to the TV sets to witness the biggest sporting event of the year – the final game of American football. It's a guy thing. But roles are reversed in my household. The wife sits in front of the TV with popcorn and Coke. I give her company, but only to watch the ads.
This is far from an unusual scenario as the best of the best ads air during the games. So much so, that there are as much, if not more, post-game reviews of the ads than of the game itself.
It IS the Super Bowl, the grand finale of American football (with nothing to do much with the foot), that has reached the height of its brand equity. TV therefore controls the duration of the ads to sync with the timeouts of the game. Perhaps the game itself was designed to accommodate for ads, the latter paying top dollars for every second of airtime.
In Bangladesh, we watch TV ads, brought to you by Tritio Matra. Ok, only the diehard fans of the latter patiently sit through the ads, a process known as torture.
But if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Like the stock market, life is everlasting bliss. Well, till all hell breaks loose. And when (I didn't say if) that happens in traditional media, it will be too late. The dime a dozen TV channels will wither away as the remaining advertizing takas make their way to digital media, where the sponsor's cost is lower, the return on investment is higher, the content are fiercely cutting edge while being available on demand, i.e., to be watched at the leisure of the viewers. The wake-up alarm clock has been ringing, but most have chosen to press the snooze button.
Video killed the Radio Star, and now, online video is killing the TV video star.
So, is all the sponsor dough going digital? No. There's plenty left for TV, that is the TV that viewers watch. Hence, these prime TV advertising takas are making their way across the border – if the ad needs to be seen, they need to be shown through what ARE being seen. Icing on the cake for the sponsors – ad times are potentially cheaper across the border as those channels can run two streams of ads concurrently, thus practically offering half the price to Bangladeshi ads while Indian ads are played to the Indian viewers. Whether we like it or not, that IS the power of Indian channels as they HAVE created the content to lure in droves of viewers from both sides of the fence. Why else does my four year old convince her 10 year old sibling to cut her (the 4 year old's) hair just because Potol Kumar has cut her hair short?
Block the Indian channels? Bangladesh will still figure out a way to watch – technology.
Is there a silver bullet? Yes and it's always been there – create quality programmes. That doesn't mean more revolving lights and fancier LED backgrounds. Less is more – invest in quality writers and then, a simple facade will do while giving rich content. And please, don't underestimate the intellect of the viewers. They'll get it – no need to explain the punch line and as a backup, play an annoying sound bite to remind us to laugh.
The quality programme raises viewership, well somewhat. Remember we are still advertisement heavy. So, now raise the price of ads – somewhat. Now reduce the number of ads, somewhat, by keeping your total ad revenues the same. Hold on, don't start getting greedy. With somewhat reduced ads, the viewership increases again, somewhat. Raise the price again, somewhat, and reduce the ad times again, somewhat.
Repeat the loop. Boiling frog syndrome (my favorite line). Over time, the trickle effect is a drastic net in increase in viewership along with ad prices and a drastic net decrease in ad times and a drastic net increase in demand from sponsors to bag the drastically scarce ad times. The clever channels will figure out a sizeable net increase in ad revenues.
So what happens to digital? Oh, they will get drastically savvier in the meantime, continuing to pose a major challenge to the traditional channels.
Again, a silver bullet for the TV channels. Sleep with the enemy. Once aired, give your content to the digital brethren and announce it to the world.
And you radio guys? Don't chuckle. All applies to you too.
Let's see what's in store for us – the dinosaur or the phoenix…
The writer is an engineer at Ford & Qualcomm USA and CEO of IBM & Nokia Siemens Networks Bangladesh turned comedian (by choice), the host of ABC Radio's Good Morning Bangladesh and the founder of Naveed's Comedy Club. E-mail: [email protected]
Comments