HDTV - A Love Story
By: Jonathan Lumerman
I spent 3 hours this morning watching the sun rise, followed by the migration of ladybugs for another 2 hours. The vivid colors of the sunrise invading my living room and the feeling that a swarm of ladybugs were about to come through my TV kept me watching for half of the day.
I admit it - I bought into the hype. I spent the last two years listening to my friends brag about their High Definition Televisions (HDTVs). Finally, after listening to these “elitists’ claim that they can no longer watch “regular” TV, I bought an HDTV. I have only had my HDTV for one week - and I can hardly imagine watching something that is not in high definition - TV or commercials.
Unlike any other year, the ad industry’s focus on Engagement reached a crescendo. This frenzy even prompted the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) to come up with a working definition. It is, “Engagement is turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context.” Loosely translated as, by being more engaged with a media property, the likelihood of a viewer to act on an advertisement rises.
I was easily swayed at how impressive high definition TV programming was. However, I did not get the same feeling for commercials. Unusually, most commercials running on HiDef programming are not created in HiDef. It is hard to get used to the back and forth of high def programming and standard def commercials. To understand the difference between HD programming and Standard Def (SD) commercials you need to first understand how the images are broadcast. The aspect ratio of an image is its display size which is measured by its width divided by its height. For instance, the aspect ratio of a traditional television screen is 4:3, High-definition television use an aspect of 16:9. So when you are watching a program that is broadcast in 16:9 coupled with the astonishing clarity that HDTV adds, it is very disruptive when an SD commercial comes on.
As I watched playoff football this weekend, I was getting increasingly annoyed at the advertisers themselves for not having high def commercials. After the intensity of the life like football game, I was suddenly yanked back to low def reality. BUT, every once in a while, there would be a high def commercial. Just like watching the ladybugs, I was drawn into the commercial. I could have watched the lady in red take her white pet tiger for a walk over and over again. Two weeks ago it seemed absurd that she was using a string of colorful jewels to walk her tiger, but today, I made a quick detour by the TV to see if any of the jewels actually tumbled out. You want to talk about engagement. With the exception of Super Bowl Sunday, I never looked forward to commercials.
Almost all of the network primetime shows are shot in HD as are a growing number of daytime shows, not to mention all of the sportscasts. Even Jay Leno’s Tonight Show is shot in HD.
So, why aren’t more advertisers producing high def commercials? Could it be cost? It shouldn’t be. According to a recent article in Broadcasting & Cable, Tim Hanlon, senior VP of ventures for Publicis’ Denuo Group states that producing commercials in HD only commands a 10% premium over an SD spot.
Part of the problem seems to be the research behind HD viewership. With HD sets in only 25 million homes, less than 10% of the country, Nielsen maintains that they need a larger viewership to justify measurement. Basically, HD users are non-existent. At this point, if a marketer wants to attract an affluent and well educated crowd by going after the HD audience, they will not be able to rely on specific ratings research but rather extrapolations based on set costs and service rates.
In the near future, Nielsen will start releasing commercial ratings. At that point advertisers will have to do something to make their commercials stand out. The early adopters, like Hitachi, Samsung and Sony will continue to benefit and everyone else will be playing catch-up. In the meantime, I think I am going to try to count the number of rings around Saturn…