TiVo: Viewers don't skip movie promos

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

August 20, 2008, 4:56 PM

In its latest Stop||Watch commercial rankings, TiVo found that, while viewers fast-forward through most paid advertisements, movie trailers are among the least skipped.

Stop||Watch has been measuring this trend for months. In May, the top three most-watched commercials were promoting movies. Now, the results for June show the top four commercials in total viewing were for movies.

Commercials for Sony Pictures' Hancock with Will Smith ranked as the most viewed altogether, followed by spots for Universal's The Incredible Hulk, Warner Brothers' The Dark Knight, and 20th Century Fox's The Happening. Disney's Wall-E was in sixth place behind a Nike ad.

Astute advertisers have already exhibited their firm grasp of the power of movie trailers this year. Sprint's and Samsung's Instinct smartphone was backed by "The Ultimate Product Placement" movie trailer ad campaign. Perhaps not so coincidentally, The Instinct became Best Buy's top selling handset over the past two years. And two months ago, LG's movie-trailer-style campaign for its 'Scarlet' HDTVs was so convincing -- complete with a real actress in the "starring role" -- that some viewers were actually left wondering when the movie would premiere.

Also, as TiVo revealed today, Stop||Watch research data has found that viewers are more likely to fast-forward through broadcast network commercials than those aired on cable networks. 60% of ads aired on Fox during prime time, for example, are skipped; while only 22% of ads on ESPN were skipped during prime time. Cable networks, however, have only a fraction of the viewers of broadcast networks.