Used to be summer was a time to hit the beach, a national park or at least the backyard. It was not the time most people thought about gathering around the TV (or laptop or handheld) for a new batch of outstanding programming. But this year certainly follows the trend of the last few and offers up a bevy of beauties.
Drama, comedy, reality – they’re all here to distract us from the beautiful weather, friends and family. But, no reason for a staycation, because with DVRs, single system TVs, and phone and Internet packages—plus a little creative jockeying to tune in wherever you are, there are shows-aplenty to create a perfect 30- or 60-minute escape.
The Big C, Covert Affairs, The Good Guys, Memphis Beat and The Hard Times of RJ Berger mark some of the new shows to interrupt the normally packed schedule of reruns and summer reality shows (most that would never make it to air during the peak TV watching season). Returning shows Entourage, Burn Notice, White Collar, Mad Men and True Blood will be bringing audiences back to well-known characters and storylines that will define summer water-cooler or links-strolling conversation. And these are just a few. Jason Dietz, Features Editor at Metacritic provides reviews of 20 of his summer selections.
So there are great shows. Many with narrow themes and niche audiences—dare I say long tail here? So why then, in the case of shows that allow advertising, do we see those pesky TV spots and pre-roll video that don’t have anything to do with the content of the show? Are the digital and traditional folks at agencies not merged together yet? Have we not learned that contextual means contextual no matter where we are—in the airport, at the bus stop, on the Internet, on TV?
I remember 10 years ago while working at the ill-fated marchFIRST, there was a spoken promise of the day when we would never be served an ad that didn’t align with us personally. Nirvana, right? Well, we clearly haven’t gotten there on the box, begging the question, why are we so far away? There have been a few occasions over the past year when ads have come on and at least played to the content and context of the shows where they appeared. They surprise, not because they are necessarily 100 percent relevant to every person in the audience, but at least they recognize that a person is watching a certain type of programming.
Give us the rock star spot for Cover Girl or Sears when we’re watching American Idol or the American Music Awards. Or how about the sports-related spot for Ford or Johnsonville Brats when the baseball game is on? Sure, it means making far more spots (probably cheaper, faster and with a lot more creativity), but isn’t that what we’re already doing with contextual banners, buttons and boxes…even online searches? It is. Maybe if advertisers demonstrated they understood what we were watching, we’d take the time to understand their brand a little better.
Here’s to locking yourself away in the basement on a sunny Saturday to get a few of those new summer favorites off the DVR, and hopefully soon pulling your thumb off the button during commercials to take in something that just might feel like it belongs.
Robert D. Landa is Vice President, Executive Creative Director at R+K. For more information, contact rlanda@rkconnect.com.