I had to laugh out loud while reading an interview today with David Verklin, CEO of Canoe Ventures. It was this quote that brought about the giggles:
“I kind of feel like Jeff Bezos, who built an amazing business with Amazon on top of an existing technology platform, except I’m being asked to build a platform and then a business a top of that.”
Look, the concept is great; put together a consortium of Cable TV providers and enable them to bring relevant advertising to their viewers. Could be good for both the viewer and the advertiser. I love the idea of advertisers using a more personal and relevant approach to communicating with consumers.
But it’s no wonder the initiative ran into technical snags back in July (reportedly around EBIF, or Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format, the technology necessary to make interactive and addressable ads possible on digital set-top boxes.) Someone needs to hip David to the fact that technology can’t come first. Business first, then the technology to support it.
And despite the fact that Nielsen reports that Americans are watching more TV than ever, it’s also been reported that around a third of those viewers are also using the Internet…at the same time. I’m a multitasking monster, but I have trouble with picture-in-picture, let alone using my phone, the Internet, and the TV at the same time. I may have them all going at once, but I’m only engaged with one at a time.
Maybe TV 
viewing is at an all-time high because more people are out of work, sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring or maybe they’re simply too depressed about the economic state of our country to do much else but watch the junk that passes for entertainment on the tube these days.
Who knows. One thing is certain – for all the research out there from Nielsen and others regarding TV viewing, they really have no way of knowing if people are actually watching or just have the TV on in the background (while they surf the ‘Net, use their phone, watch video online, or play video games!)
But I’m getting off track here. The idea of addressable messaging won’t ever fly unless the consumer is at the center of the model. Interruptive advertising, no matter how relevant, is still interruptive and audiences are more fragmented than ever. But viewers are far from the passive consumers of content we’re made out to be.
And despite the research that purports a good portion of us are sitting transfixed for 140+ hours a month in front of the TV while drooling on the couch, we do make good use of our DVRs and many of us absolutely do weed out the commercials. So I’m a dog owner; will it really make a difference if I’m shown a dog food commercial instead of a cat food commercial?
Hey, Garfield – send David a copy of “The Chaos Scenario,” will ya.
What’s your take on all of this? Pull yourself away from the TV, wipe the drool off your chin, and leave a comment.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I was not surprised to see the plug get pulled on this initiative, and I think that this could be a case study for The Innovator’s Dilemma. Knowing the companies involved and the protectionist politics within, Canoe is not going to be successful without strong sponsorship from the right executives armed with a powerful business case. It’s easier to focus only on building the technology platform and ignore the business realities in play, but as we are seeing here that is a recipe for failure.
Hi Nick. Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately, in too many cases, technology comes first. That ultimately guarantees that the organization will spend extra time and money re-doing what they’ve implemented because in so many cases, it just doesn’t work (or worse yet, no one uses it when it does.) The implementation of technology must be driven by by the needs of the business and the people it serves – or it will fail.