Football Without Commercials?

It was a marital concession.  My wife wanted to watch a movie that she started in the other room.  We were about to sit down to eat dinner.  We often eat in front of the television.  Don't tell my mother.

So as the Giants/49ers game was about to start, I recorded it on our dvr and we sat down to eat dinner while continuing to watch John Cusack survive the second global flood.  The movie is "2012."  Perfect with pasta and red wine.  (I guess.)

I helped to clean up, helped with the dishes, did everything a husband needs to do if he doesn't want to face a cold front when he climbs into bed.  Then I went out to watch the game while she finished the movie in another room.  All was good.  We ate together.  I helped clean up.  We each had something to watch.

I fired up the dvr and watched the whole first half of the game without watching a commercial.  Fast-forwarded through every single one of them.

 

This made me think about how I've been listening to music at work.  I've been on IHeart Radio through my desk top computer, creating my own station, no commercials.  Now I Heart is warning us that the custom stations will be commercial free only until March.  So I have until then to find another service that is commercial free.

How many commercials have I been able to avoid this week?  Between the championship game on tv and the music throughout the work day, I'd guess nearly a million dollars worth of advertising.  I missed it all.  Happily.
But I'm in advertising.  I'm a marketing guy.  If I'm skipping commercials, others are doing it even more.  So the question is, if you're an advertising person, a marketing maven, what do you do?

It's a different world today.  Don't you believe for a second that your commercials are must-watched (must-heard) content.  Don't you think that.  So how do you advertise now?

I think about this all the time.  Do you? 

What would you do?

Say you are a marketing manager for a cruise line.  What do you do when the world wakes up one morning to see a picture like this?




So that ship is not owned by your company.  And your company has never suffered such a catastrophe...  people died here.  I don't think it matters that your company's record is spotless and your brand is pristine.  People are going to remember this picture.  It will linger in the traveler's mind for a long time.  It certainly has the potential to hurt your business. 

So how do you respond?  Do you think about things like this when they come up?  I do.  I often sit down and wonder how I would handle difficult marketing situations.  Maybe that makes me odd.  I don't know. 

I have always believed that any negative situation can be used to create a positive.  But this one....  wow. 

I suppose you could just ignore it.  It didn't happen to your company so you act as if it never happened at all.  Stay your own course.  I don't think so.

You don't have to come right out and say that you never run your ships aground and sink them next to obscure Italian islands.  In fact you probably shouldn't mention it at all but I do think you should consider a course adjustment. 

What about creating a new marketing campaign that focuses on customer service and satisfaction?  Why not shift your strategy away from exotic destinations and on-board fun (if that's what you're doing) and take it to where you show how you delight hundreds of thousands of travelers every year.  Use some glowing customer comments, creatively packaged testimonials, effusive praise for the courteous crew and the joy of the experience.   Make the consuming public forget about the horror of this event by blinding them with overwhelmingly positive feedback from actual customers.  This message would be tied to the tragic accident only by timing... but that's enough and it is important.  That's the reason why this strategy would fit at this time. 

That's what I'd do, I think.  A better idea may come to me tomorrow. 

What would you do?