Some, er, research on social media strategy led me to Zach Golden’s copywriting portfolio. These ads for TiVo are great.
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Some, er, research on social media strategy led me to Zach Golden’s copywriting portfolio. These ads for TiVo are great.
Brant Kelsey
on 03 Aug 10These are great! Thanks for the share. He’s got some good stuff in his portfolio.
Stefan Seiz
on 03 Aug 10What is TiVo? A TV-Schedule-Magzine?
Stefan Seiz
on 03 Aug 10Ouch! Took a non US Citizen like me a while to get them, not being familiar to your TV Schedules (Late Show etc…). Very clever. Possibly too clever.
Michal
on 03 Aug 10Sorry, i don’t get it. Do you need to live in US to understand or am I just dumb? :-)
Stefan Seiz
on 03 Aug 10@Michael There is no “morning show”, it’s the “late show” and probably there’s no football on tuesday night either… took me a while too.
Ted
on 03 Aug 10To explain:
The first image references “Monday Night Football”, a traditional time-slot for American Football.
I think the second image simply picked a random date for it’s “new” time.
And finally, @Stefan_Seiz is right. It’s “The Late Show”, and it goes on at 10:30 pm or so every weeknight.
Eric Anderson
on 03 Aug 10The second one references the fact that Friday the 13th (considered unlucky by the superstitious) might be a typical time to do a “Scary Movie Marathon”. But if that doesn’t fit in your schedule (or is too scary for you) you can do it the next day.
I agree with others in the fact that they are cute, but too clever as they rely on people being familiar with different aspects of pop culture. I didn’t get the joke until I saw the last one which was the most obvious for me (but might not be for someone else). Once I got the joke I figured out the second one. The first one I didn’t get until @Ted explained it to me since I am not someone who watches football.
Eric Anderson
on 03 Aug 10What is up with the “copywriting portfolio” (linked in the article) using horizontal scrolling. Actually took me a second to figure out how to see the other ads on his site because I was looking for some sort of “carousel” controls on the page and missed the scroll bar at the bottom (my monitor is fairly large so the scroll bar was quite separated from the content and I don’t usually expect to look for a horizontal scoll).
Travitron
on 03 Aug 10After reading the comments, it’s clear that these ads might not be as great as they seem. For me personally, I just thought they were bold ads, which in itself is good, but the Monday vs Tuesday night football thing totally went over my head. For the second one, I didn’t even see the “13th” thing. For the last one, I actually read it as “The Late Show” just because I recognized the logo and know it as such.
Jeff Putz
on 04 Aug 10These are actually too clever. I had to read them all to get it. Now see just one, and if you don’t make the Tivo connection, they’re meaningless.
EH
on 04 Aug 10Subtlety is lost on those unable to appreciate it.
Martial
on 05 Aug 10I don’t think these are “too clever”. They are right in the wheelhouse of the Tivo target audience: television watchers. TV is pretty much the definition in America of popular culture. I’d also say they are targeting a certain generation, i.e. mine. I got them all without a second thought even though, like many GenXers with kids, I no longer watch TV. Tivo wants me to come back to TV by giving me back the control over time that my child has wrested from me. Or that’s the theory.
People with a shared TV culture are getting older. Cable has finally opened up too many options for a shared national TV culture. Monday Night Football, while still often ESPN’s highest rated show, doesn’t draw half the audience it used to (in the 70s and into the 80s, it was often the highest rated show in any week!). Leno is the highest rated late-night show, but doesn’t pull close to the same audience Carson did. “Friday the 13th” might be a classic horror movie, but is now 30 years old! (You’d schedule a scary movie festival for a Friday the 13th specifically to cash in on the pop culture recognition of the film name, not just because Friday the 13th is an unlucky day.)
John Hyde
on 06 Aug 10I’m voting “too clever”.
Great for impressing a bunch of HIPPOs round the board room because they have time to ponder the greatness as you bring the slides up. And they don’t want to seem stoopid by “not getting it”.
I would go with something simpler like “watch the late show early”.
This discussion is closed.