The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Just a little thought about digital video recorders and advertising

Bunny's had a DVR for a couple of months now, and it's gotten to the point where watching live TV is annoying, especially because of the “30-second fast-forward” button (press it, it goes fast-forward through 30 seconds worth of video). It's not an immedate jump—no, it actually fast forwards.

Now, I'm amazed that advertisers haven't attempted to make a commercial that's watchable when fast-forwarding. I timed the “30-second fast-forward” button, and it takes 3 seconds to skip forward 30 seconds of video. 10-to-1 compression. Okay, what can one do in just three seconds?

What can one do in ten seconds? (for the record, I heard about that contest over a year ago) I came up with a few ideas that had an actual narrative structure, and just a few days ago, I realized I could probably do an entire Ernest Hemingway short story in 10 seconds. Three seconds is more than enough for brand building.

It's just a matter of time before some advertiser tries this.

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