Digital video recorders provide a type for marketing pros

I’ll bet most of the readers of my blog use a digital video recording device of some kind.

As I was shoveling snow this week I was thinking about my experience seeing the Super Bowl commercials. I think they’re the first commercials I’ve seen in many, many months.

You see, we have a handful of favorite TV programs and we record them automatically. Then, when we’ve got a spare hour or so, my wife and I will watch the program, skipping through the commercials.

Watching this year’s Grammy’s was a breeze. Not only could we scan through commercials, but we could skip musical performances we didn’t care for and fast forward segments that included see-through ladybug outfits on nine-month pregnant women. Yikes! Could have lived without ever seeing that!

I suspect most people with DVRs watch TV in a similar fashion.

I can see the writing on the wall for marketers with the whole ‘my time’ instead of ‘prime time’ philosophy.

Consumers are in the driver’s seat. They choose what messages they want to be exposed to, when and where they want to receive the information.

Email spam filters can make it difficult for legitimate email messages to be delivered, much less commercial solicitations.

Going along the lines of what I blogged about last week on the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City blog, I believe we’re going to see a person’s mobile phone become the primary vehicle through which personal and commercial messages are sent and received.

And it’s not the marketer, advertiser or public relations professional in charge of message delivery—it’s the person who’s in charge of selecting which messages he or she wants to receive.

But it is the PR, marketing and advertising professional’s job to be sure client’s messages are available in tasteful, creative ways. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: content is king!

Discerning publics will increasingly require creative, authentic and engaging content on a variety of platforms.

Communication professionals, you’ve been called out! It’s time to step-up and deliver in ways that better connect with your key constituencies.