We talked in class about the demographics of advertising for younger age groups and how to reach this future (and via parents and grandparents) current market segment. Amidst this conversation I was targeted marvelously by http://www.abcmouse.com/.
It was really neat to see how cable TV worked with traditional TV commercials in a way that had specific appeal to a potential customer (me) who DVR's the majority of programming which I share with my four-year-old. In a magnificent example of destination marketing and fully utilizing "content is king" I found this resource when I did a DVR search for a specific movie (Monsters vs Aliens). It was only available on FX On Demand, which means, I can't just find it by doing an FX search and recording the program. We can only see it as long as it is available on FX on Demand, for a limited time. Because it is a limited time, we are more apt to watch-it-now. With FX on Demand, we have variety similar to HBO, but without having to pay extra. FX on Demand movies, unlike HBO, do have commercials.
The commercial for abcmouse wasn't the typical 30 seconds. It was a full two minutes. While I was fast forwarding the commercials, I had to notice the commercial because it was longer than typical. If it was 30 seconds, I would have sped right over it. This interruption tactic was acceptable to me because I knew the value at the outset, I got the movie without paying money for it. I was paying by having the commercial interrupt. I had already agreed to this when I selected FX on Demand.
The longer spot was enough to get my attention with the high utilization of bright colors, happy children and an obviously preschool theme. It was enough for me to want to watch the commercial content which appeared to hold value to me. I stopped fast forwarding and played back the whole commercial.
When Patrick's movie was over, I replayed the commercial. In minutes I was online looking at their homepage. In ten minutes I had previewed the site and signed up for a membership. The first month was free and the monthly charge after that is a mere $7.95.
My point is this, interruption advertising still works if you are a smart marketer and know how to work it. I tend to prefer funny commercials over non-funny ones, but they still don't tend to succeed at gaining my business. This marketing effort respected the fact I want value for my time and gave it to me. In return, I gave them my business.
Incidentally, my son loves the program and is learning more from the website than the traditional learning books we have. He loves to get online and color, read books and play number games.
This article offers an excellent review which illustrates the use and benefits of abcmouse. Enjoy.
http://educationalgamespot.blogspot.com/2011/05/abc-mouse.html
