The 30 second commercial is not dead. But the decline is clear. The rise of the Internet, media world changes of media proliferation and audience fragmentation, changes in lifestyle and TV watching habits, the remote control, the advent of the DVR led by TiVo all fuelled the declining effectiveness and ROI of the ubiquitous, intrusive, interruptive 30 seconder. The metamorphosis of the mobile phone into an ultra-versatile device and now the advent of DotMobi sites are driving the shift of communications to on-demand media and consumer engagement activations. If you think Sri Lanka remains untouched by these trends, think again, and act on them!

The rapid home-penetration of the Internet in economies that had affordable access to computers from the Western world to Asian economies like Korea marked the change from the passive ad-absorbing couch potato to the active information-seeking consumer. Now Web 2.0 and its stars like YouTube, MySpace, Flickr and the exponential growth of blogs are creating the content-generating consumer. Sri Lanka, with home computer penetration still under 5%, remains somewhat immune to this trend.

Most Sri Lankans still watch our teledramas and canned programmes on our national terrestrial channels, but the channels have increased and the audiences have got

fragmented. Today we have 19 terrestrial & satellite channels. In Q1 2005, 21 programmes had ratings higher than 10. By Q1 2007, this had fallen to 7 programmes. Currently, over 90% of programmes have ratings less than 3. Along with this, the cost per eyeball has risen and the diminishing returns are clear. Add to it the channel choices (varying between18-50) offered by cable operators which have taken affluent viewers away, and will soon make inroads into the middle income sector with the aggressive promotion of satellite TV, and the change merits the attention of marketers who want to retain contact with their affluent and not-so-affluent consumers.

Consumers avoid ads through various means – zapping via the remote control, perceptual blocks, multi-tasking and visits to the bathroom. US zappers had risen to 47% in 2004, but the Sri Lankan figure was estimated at around 10%, which is probably an underestimation that is changing rapidly. Day-after Recall (of ads seen the night before) in the US had diminished to from 34% in 1965 to 9% in 2000, and there is no reason to believe that Sri Lankans have better memories for more boring ads!

Radio too has grown to 28 national channels and 11 regional ones. At any single time slot, the audience ratings that a channel gets can range from zero to less than 5 at best. Radio is changing from a mass medium into a medium appealing to niche segments. Stations may want to cultivate and deliver specific audience segments rather than seeking to be all things to all people. This will then aid better targeting and more effective marketing from both the station’s and marketer’s viewpoints.

DVRs have not hit our market yet, but mobile phone penetration has been growing exponentially with growth rates of over 50% to deliver over 27% penetration or 5.4 million subscribers and counting. Most phones are now sophisticated mobile devices capable of accessing the web using GPRS and WAP protocols. Yet, web access through the mobile phone has been difficult till now because DotCom sites were made for computer access. However, the advent of DotMobi sites after the domain was launched worldwide in September last year, and the recent launch of such sites targeting the Sri Lankan market opens up new possibilities for web access and on-demand information at the consumer’s fingertips. With declining returns in traditional media, marketers may be well advised to take note of and leverage this development for their benefit.

While push marketing via traditional advertising still has value in image building for brands, the limitation of what one can do in 30 seconds poses a problem. Sri Lankan marketers are notorious for wanting to cram multiple messages into a 30 seconder! Consumers seek useful and comparative information in making their purchase decisions, so marketers may think of using these on-demand web media options which have the capability of providing more extensive content to potential buyers.

Push messaging and consumer bombardment have given way to consumer engagement as a more effective and meaningful way to communicate with and provide brand experiences to today’s tuned-off consumer. This may be done via the web, like BMW did when it created some exciting filmlets featuring their cars in action which drew consumer interest and engagement by the millions, or by creating personal interactions, using events – like Carlsberg’s night club promotions in Colombo, or brand experience locations – like Niketown stores in the US, or mobile stations like Unilever Sri Lanka’s mobile Sunsilk salons. Activation is growing fast as a new service offered by the advertising industry, given its growing importance in engaging consumers more effectively and leading them to experience the brand. In the cover story, the value of activation and their increasing investment in it is underscored by the Chairman of Unilever Sri Lanka.

The sooner Sri Lanka’s marketers respond to the changing realities in consumer habits, lifestyles and the media scene, question and evaluate their past and current practices, and seek more effective ways to bring the experience of their brands to their target consumers, the better will be their marketing and ROI.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 10:18 am and is filed under Editorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.