The New York Times ran a great story recently, titled Marketers Struggle to Get Folks to Stay Put for the Commercials. Apparently, the major TV networks are experimenting with ways to keep the viewing public in their seats, rather than dashing off during the commercials to head for the fridge or the bathroom....or even worse: clicking to other TV channels... .

Then there are numerous TV viewers who record their favorite programs, and have the ability to fast-forward through the commercials when they sit down to watch at their leisure.

“At the end of May,” the article states, “the Nielsen Company, whose ratings determine how much advertisers pay to buy television time, will begin to release ratings of how many people watch commercials, on average, during each program. Those figures will allow advertisers to understand which show’s audiences are most likely to desert during breaks.”

This ought to prove very interesting, don’t you think?

While many companies are segmenting their advertising spends more among their many new media options, they’re still investing heavily in TV ads. Will that spend be further tempered by the results of Nielsen’s research? That remains to be seen.

Advertising revenues are no small matter, and in order to protect their revenue streams, the networks are getting crafty in their attempts to get their ads in front of the viewers. The NY Times article reports that Viacom, the media giant that owns a number of influential cable TV networks, has shared the new commercial format ideas its creative teams have worked on.

• A potential single commercial that lasts for a full commercial break—featuring TV stars in the ads and featuring running storylines with those stars.
• Some Viacom networks are running three shorter vs two longer commercials in each half-hour break.
• Experimentation in "blurring the line" between TV content and the ads. Integrating commercials into the "context of the messaging of the program" making them synonymous, and at the same time, entertaining, is another Viacom approach.

John Shea, Viacom Executive VP of integrated marketing for the MTV Networks Music & Logo Group, “Whenever we can turn what has been thought of as a break into an entertaining moment, we’re doing that.”

In other words: Let the entertaining be the new advertising in this brave new world, and the advertising be the entertainment.

Have any of you seen these new formats? If so, what do you think of them? If you haven’t, do you think these ideas have legs? Do you think they’ll work, or will the messaging be lost in the context of entertainment?

We’d like to hear from you... .