How Should MSOs Pitch VOD?

Cable World, April 4, 2005

In VOD, MSOs think they have the killer app against DBS. Problem is, they still haven't figured out how to pitch it to consumers. CableWORLD and CTAM rounded up three ad agency executives to rate MSOs' VOD ads and offer advice on how to better market the service against satellite.

By John P. Ourand

Cable MSOs don't have a good reputation on Madison Avenue. Ad agency executives have come to expect only ineffective, poorly made commercials from them.

MSOs mainly have concentrated on producing low-budget tutorial-type commercials that describe their new services--and that just doesn't cut it with Madison Avenue. MSOs' commercials look even more low rent when compared with the glitzy spots produced by their programming partners.

Cable operators are hoping to change that image, and with some of their newest VOD spots, they are beginning to win over some ad agency executives. "[They] are definitely better than we were seeing at the beginning of these product launches," says Karin Henderson, principal and executive creative director, MK Advertising. "Personal relevance is coming across a lot more now than they were back in the days when functionality was all we were selling."

A recent batch of VOD commercials from the top five MSOs shows that they are doing a better job pitching their wares. CableWORLD and CTAM screened VOD ads from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter and Cox for three ad agency executives. They read a script from Adelphia's submission, which was not ready to be screened at the time the panel convened.

"These are more strategic, with better budgets and better executed," says Mark Tomizawa, president and CEO, SMASH Advertising.

Still, the ad agency executives say there's a lot of room for improvement and warn MSOs to "kick it up a notch" in short order, Tomizawa says. "In a few months it's about to get a lot more competitive. If nothing else were going to change, this would be a terrific, healthy improvement."

Even with all the plaudits the ad agency executives heaped on the MSOs' VOD spots, the panel complained that the ads' content was too focused on competitive issues that don't concern the average consumer. "They weren't dealing with the application to people's lives," says John Zamoiski, COO of NMA Entertainment & Marketing. "What's important here is what is going to make this different. It's not about having more. Everybody's offering more."

To combat that, the panel unanimously agreed that commercials should follow more "experiential" story lines to which viewers could relate. That includes focusing on VOD content, rather than on technical features. "You can talk all you want about fast-forwarding and rewinding and convenience," Henderson says. "But if you're not telling somebody what kind of programming they are missing out on, the control becomes less relevant."

The commercials failed when they sold the technology of VOD, the panel agreed. "It's not about the technology, it's about application to your life," Zamoiski says.

Cable would be well-served to adopt Apple's iPod strategy for its VOD marketing efforts, the panelists say. "It's a zero-tech sell," says Zamoiski. "Apple does not say that you can take the iPod anywhere or that it has a spiffy wheel that allows you to control it with just one finger. What they don't say, but what they show you is, 'Hey, this is freedom, baby!'"

[Copyright 2005 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]