Give the People What They Want

When was the last time you intentionally stopped your DVR mid-commercial, rewound a few seconds and watched an ad in full?

In my house, it is rare that we actually see commercials these days. Other than live sports, during which we’re almost always multitasking, TV watching is deliberate and intentional. Cram as much content in as we can after the little one goes down and before we can’t keep our eyes open anymore (which for proud parents of an eleven-month-old, is about 8:30…aaaand, now I feel old).

We are usually a day or more behind on everything, which means any live tweetups are annoying spoilers, not sticky ways to extend our participation. So, needless to say, it takes a lot for me to even consider investing precious TV time in a commercial…but earlier this year, I did just that.

We were catching up on the latest season of Top Chef and a series of branded content spots caught my eye. They included cast members from a recent Top Chef season making a cocktail.

Yes, it was a shameless plug by Patron—last season’s main sponsor—but it had everything.

• A recognizable (and relevant) figure for the show’s audience? Check.
• Educational/DIY/shareable content? Check.
• An emotional response? I was happy and wanted to try one of their cocktails.
• Multiple calls to action (visit the website for a recipe, or just go out and buy some tequila and try it yourself)? I sure did.
• A positive and lasting impression? Well…I guess that was at the mercy of my amateur (i.e. heavy handed) bartending talents…but turns out the El Viejon was delicious.

They clearly understood me—their target audience.

Based on the dramatized cooking competition I was watching, they could reasonably assume that I was into foodie stuff, making me a prime target for their elevated tequila cocktail campaign.

They also likely knew that I—like almost three-quarters of my spirit-craving-male-peers, according to WE’s Brands in Motion research—would likely have a positive reaction to unintended branded content that I stumbled across while watching TV.

Even better, they knew how to package their content as an extension of the show I was watching and ultimately, beat the FFW button.

This also got me thinking about places where that exact same content would have annoyed me…like in a professional setting…and it turned out I wasn’t alone, with 87% of my spirit-craving-male peers agreeing that we do NOT look for booze on LinkedIn (although 4 in 10 of us ARE looking for B2B tech info there).

So how do we get our clients’ customers to stop, rewind and tune in?

Give the people what they want.

Connect with the author, Gordie Hanrahan, on Twitter.