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Net Gains (Nov 06, 98) |
The study, prepared by Research International on behalf of PriceWaterHouse
Coopers, showed that about 34% of the respondents agreed that
personal home use of the Internet is replacing time spent watching
TV, and an equal percentage said that their Internet time is replacing
their reading time! And if we netaholics examine ourselves, we'll
find that this is true in our day to day lives!
Seeing these results, I logged out of the Net and switched on
my telly, only to see a commercial driving people back to the
Net. This ad started off with an elderly man sneaking into his
son's room while he's away and logging onto Internet Chat. He
strikes up a conversation with a lady, pretending he's half his
age, virile and with the times - now don't all Dads do that? When
asked about his taste in music, he quickly looks at his son's
CD collection and keys in a few popular band names, and does the
same with books. All this while the viewer is left wondering what
the advertisement is out to promote. Then comes the answer - when
he's talking about his taste in spirits… he types in the
drink of his generation, only to quickly erase it. While he's
trying to figure out which alcohol brand is more contemporary
and will impress the lady he's chatting with, his son enters the
room and gives him the answer - Gilbeys Solitaire.
Curiosity piqued, I logged onto the Net to look up www.gilbeys-solitaire.com,
and see what they had to offer surfers. Sadly enough, the site
was under construction. Liquor companies don't have too much freedom
as far as advertising goes, and the clever chaps look upon the
Net as a gift from heaven. Alcohol sites the world over seek to
offer the user a brand experience through their site instead of
just hawking their wares - contests, games, cocktail recipes,
e-cards, and surfer interaction rule these sites. No doubt gilbeys-solitaire.com
will be built on similar lines and the commercial suggests that
it may lean heavily towards chat.
It's nice to see companies waking up to the fact that there's
so much more that can be done with the Internet than just putting
a website that talks about themselves and their brands. Still
better is the fact that they are learning to use different media
to complement each other. While a few companies flash their URL
(Internet address) at the end of their commercials, this one is
a first in that it is built to build the brand and drive people
to a site on the Internet that supports the commercial. In the
near future, such ads will be more commonplace… no wonder
then that people are switching off their TVs and spending more
time logged on…