-
Feeds
Mar
23
Blatant Consumer Abuse?
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, humor
There’s blatant abuse of consumer attention/captive moments and then there’s REALLY blatant abuse of captive time. A recent Air Canada flight just took the cake for me - note this is just my opinion but read on.
Now, I’ve got to give it to Air Canada, they’ve got a pretty slick little interface set up in their new planes. Great touch screen, responsive, decent content (although they need some more). What they’ve done to make money in between a consumer mindlessly pushing buttons and consuming content is to add customized pre-roll to the front of the content wheel. As a consumer, I expect this. You give me free content, I will watch ads. I haven’t resigned myself to it - I’m actually completely accepting of it….within reason.
When I hear pre-roll, I usually think 1 ad, maybe 2….3 at the most. Specifically to captive networks that aren’t TV, I also expect them to be 15 seconds’ish.
So I was awestruck when I started playing around with their system and found that their TV/Signage Pre-Roll Maxes Over 3 Minutes!
Below are some of the ads I was fortunate enough to be force fed before finally getting to the content. Excuse the quality…my Blackberry takes crappy shots:
Premier Executive Suites - the shortest and to the point of the set. Approx 15 seconds:
The run for Harry’s fighting cancer - relevance to market = good. Full 30 seconds.
The Keg. Repurposed commercial off TV. Didn’t hit home with me. 30 seconds.
National Auto Rental. Good relevance tie in and custom messaging for the medium (especially given the Aeroplan/AirCanada link). I think this was just 30 seconds but it felt like 60.
Purolator. That auction commercial. I personally don’t find the content relevent…Personally, I’d think the typical buyers or users of their services would be EA’s, Office admins, some operational and shipping departments. I’d think it’s rare that those on Air Canada flights regularly would be picking up the phone themselves…but that’s just an outsiders view (note: Purolator used to be one of my clients in my previous life). 30 second TV spot.
Sierra Wireless. Promo and sponsorship/event content. While relevant (love Sierra cards…they’re just too damn expensive in Canada due to no unlimited data plans existing in Canada), this piece had to be 60 seconds.
3 minutes and 15 seconds of advertising.
needless to say, after watching all of those ads, I shut the system off and grabbed the little bag in the pocket in the seat in front of me.
If you have a network with captive viewers, be nice and don’t do this too them! Consumers can only take so much at one time. Split it up if you have to and keep ‘em short.
Comments
One Response to “Blatant Consumer Abuse?”
Leave a Reply
[…] you have to service the environment with the right format (6s and 15s) and not take advantage/abuse consumers and make sure the content you’re serving up fits those you’re talking […]