Nowadays it seems like everyone has something to say about the DVR time-shifting phenomenon and the end of traditional TV advertising. But what has really happened to television commercial awareness since time-shifting became possible? Can a traditional media plan still be effective at reaching your target audience?

Are your TV commercials still getting through?
Among most people, the answer is yes. Communicus research covering a wide range of brands and over 17,000 respondents indicates that the typical TV commercial is still achieving the same awareness levels as it would be without DVR.

There is however, a small percentage of people among whom your commercials are less-likely to be seen. On average, you lose about 16% of commercial awareness among the group with the heaviest fast-forwarding thumb – the 'Extreme Time-Shifters', comprised of about 7.75% of the American TV-watching public.

So who is missing your TV commercials?
Extreme Time-Shifters are most likely to be females, younger adults (with the highest concentration between 20 and 39) and those who either do not have children or who have older (teenage) children. The teen segment also has a high concentration of Extreme Time-Shifters, but (perhaps, due to their generally higher TV viewing and commercial engagement as compared to adults) teen Extreme Time-Shifters do not exhibit below average levels of commercial awareness.

How do you get them back?
If your target matches the profile of an Extreme Time-Shifter, you can compensate for the lost TV commercial awareness by implementing some modest media allocation shifts:

• Invest in multiple media. As it turns out, Extreme Time-Shifters are also heavy consumers of other media, indexing high on magazine readership, radio listening, movie going, and hours spent on the Internet. These alternative media all represent good opportunities to reach those who may be fast-forwarding through your TV commercials.
• Online commercial buys. The Internet is the most cost-effective way to generate awareness of your TV commercials. Specifically, our analysis indicates that, on average, the cost of achieving one percent of commercial awareness via an online TV buy is only 3% of the cost of achieving one percent awareness with a traditional television buy.
• The trade-off: you will reach a far narrower group with online TV, gaining on average only about ten to fifteen percent of the commercial awareness gained with a traditional TV buy. However, this media venue does provide an excellent means of utilizing the same creative units as produced for TV and helping to build back some of the commercial engagement lost to time-shifting.

The changing media habits of your target represent an opportunity to achieve better efficiencies with your media plan – don't walk away from traditional TV, but judiciously add other media venues to insure that you get the engagement you need to accomplish your advertising objectives.

For more information view the Communicus white paper:
'TV Advertising in the Age of Time-Shifting'