The Death of Prime Time?
Remember that time when the major disputes between a couple or siblings in a home used to be about something as trivial as a TV remote? How you would, perhaps, want to catch up on the news while your spouse would insist on watching a tv serial (or vice versa)! How you would hurry back home to not miss your favourite show! How the kids would break the remote into shreds and come to you to proclaim the injustice meted out by the other sibling!
But over the last few years have you noticed how the quarrels and tiffs have shifted to quiet time? When did you last rush back home to catch a TV show?
The Idiot Box in my house (and I guess in many of yours too) has been hanging on the wall since years (probably to its doom). My family members are rather slouched comfortably on the sofas and listening to or watching anything from podcasts to Netflix and even cricket matches on their tabs.
Though I haven’t stopped the cable TV subscription, I have additionally invested in good speed and higher data WIFI connection!
And this is the situation in many of my friend’s homes too, maybe many other urban homes in India today.
Gone are the days when we patiently waited for a particular time to watch our favourite show. Now, thanks to the boom of Digital Media and streaming services, we watch the shows or anything that interest us when we are free, which could be even lunchtime or the wee hour. We might catch the whole show in one go or take it in slots, all depending on our convenience!
Most of us have ‘our own prime time’ between things we do, or have ‘the entire day as prime time’ and do things in between.
And not to miss the point that whatever we watch we also share most of it (or at least communicate boastfully that we have watched it)
But what does this trend indicate? Doesn’t it imply the death of Prime Time?
I think it certainly is the beginning of the end
How should we marketers react? And should we react now?
I believe marketers should not be fully dependent on prime time anymore – judiciously chose the content you feel your target audience is definitely watching and advertise.
Remember our advertising cannot just be about ‘grabbing attention’, but should be about ‘moving attention’ from the content being watched to the advertising content.
In fact, as marketers we should rejoice - this ‘death of prime time’ also means there’s a much lesser fight for prime time slots. The consumer’s digital content consumption patterns clearly tell us that ‘every time of the day is prime time’.
So exercise this opportunity well and excel!