Watching the 51st Grammy awards on Sunday on CBS, I was knocked out (not only by the great production) but by Pepsi-Cola’s strategy to tie in an ad to a specific TV moment. Immediately after rapper Will.i.am presented an award, his face, made out of song titles, was seen during the "bumper" between his on-air moment and the Pepsi spot, which showed Will.i.am updating Dylan’s classic “Forever Young.” The brainchild of Pepsi’s ad agency Omnicom Group’s TBWA/Chiat/Day, the commercial was a great segue and made the commercial more relevant to viewers.
Rather than requesting placement that isn’t more specific than Thursday prime time, during a specific daypart, or a specific show, marketers have a new option. As more consumers fast-forward past commercial breaks, networks are willing to upend their practices to guarantee that ads appear in more-specific places and for more-specific purposes.
"Typically, you do a spot and you just try to find a bunch of different places [for it to run. That's the tommy-gun approach," said Rob Schwartz, executive creative director at Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day, Pepsi's ad agency, reports AdAge. "This is more precise, and more and more, we are looking to do deeper messages and have them in places where there's more relevance."