KFC gets creative to beat Tivo, and other DVRs

As Tivo and other DVR’s become more popular, 10 percent of households with TV sets according to Nielsen, advertisers are striving to find a way to reinvent television advertising in order to work around the feared fast-foward of commercials. Some comercials are shot with the idea that even in fast forward the message can get conveyed (for example…text on the screen looks the same regardless of the speed); KFC had the unique idea of actually giving the viewer and incentive to slow down the commercial for added value. They ran specific commercial spots from February 23rd to March 3rd that included a special coupon code on a specific frame that would only be noticed in slow motion. not only did this entice viewers to stop on the commercial, but it forced them to pay enough attention to catch a hidden message. Teaser commercials were also played announcing the challenge. The results, as quoted by KFC, were: “Roughly 103,000 people claimed “Buffalo Snacker” coupons after entering the hidden code on KFC’s Web site, the fast-food chain says. Furthermore, the publicity prompted an increase in the number of people visiting KFC’s Web site. In the weeks the ad ran, the site drew 2.75 million page views, 40 percent more than the amount of traffic it usually gets over a similar period of time.”
[via Wallstreet Journal]