A familiar cry used to be that the :30 spot was dead. But we only got it half-right: in fact, the :30 is alive and well, still successfully delivering on just about every media platform, it’s the general advertising market that’s given up the ghost.

Shockingly, we’re seeing a large number of advertising campaigns airing in the general marketplace (the three major networks), that don’t connect to what people are watching. It’s pretty tragic that many advertisers still imagine that creative can be generic across different channels, when programmers have, for the last decade, painted bulls-eyes on their uber-targeted audiences. Why haven’t people realized the opportunity to create messaging content that is as specific as the programming or content surrounding it? Well, some folks have.

Here’s what we know: media itself is splintering so much that people are not just engaging on 3 broadcast networks or even 100 cable channels. In fact there are more than 500 cable channels plus all of the broadband channels and program content. For advertisers, this means the more the media splinters, the more that marketers must refine and define the target.

The Future is Brand Integration

Media is going to splinter more and more. In tandem, we are receiving more and more information about the people who are watching. Now we see through the cable box though the DVR into the households and remotes of viewers. And, there will come a time in the very near future that we will know even the eye color of the person who is watching the show, and the last 10 things they purchased.

The power in the future of live research, from a marketer’s standpoint, is not just the obvious ‘big brother’ negatives. What would it be like to watch your favorite show…and every commercial was something that you were interested in, or cared about? What if commercials could feature the shows, the characters, the actors we already watch and care about? What if we, as marketers could truly say to our clients, “We’re not wasting all this money flashing annoying crap past these people that have no interest.”

We don’t have to feed masses when we know what people like to eat, and we’re only serving donuts. Time to reach out to the green-eyed donut-eaters who love Law and Order.