It’s a good thing movie ads on TV are popular, because there are going to be plenty of them

Posted by Chris

June 18, 2008

A new report from TiVo shows movie commercials are among the least zapped by viewers with their fingers on the DVR remote control, reports MediaPost.

The trailers and spots for the Judd Apatow-produced Forgetting Sarah Marshall were the least-fast-forwarded through campaign in the month of April according to the numbers, including a commercial during NBC’s “The Office” that was the most-viewed commercial of the month. The second-highest ranking spot was one for Will Smith’s Hancock. Both spots also benefited from being among the most replayed in the month.

Movie studios were among the biggest spenders during this year’s network TV upfront sessions, with the five major networks receiving over $1,151,000,000 from studios this year. Movie ads are seen by networks as being especially attractive because of the drawing power of the stars in them. It’s for that reason the networks try as often as possible to put movie commercials in the first slot of a commercial pod to discourage fast-forwarding through the whole pod.

I also think the lure of the properties being developed by studios is powerful. After all, people excited about Iron Man are going to stop and check out the latest spot for new footage or something like that but might not specifically be doing so because they’re Robert Downey Jr. fans. The two points aren’t mutually exclusive but they’re both factors that have to be accounted for.