What’s the status of high-definition advertising? Good question

The task was simple: find out the status of television advertising created and aired in high-definition in Canada. Do advertisers covet ad space in HD broadcasts? Is HD creative more beneficial for certain products? How much of the advertising during HD programs was produced in HD? Unfortunately, responses from advertisers, broadcasters and agencies alike shed surprisingly little light on the topic.Of the two advertisers who replied to the query, only Molson Canada expressed eagerness to address the subject. It makes sense; the visual nature of beer commercials could surely benefit from the increased quality of HD, and beer makers advertise heavily during televised sports, which are the cornerstone of the high-definition transition. But, for whatever reason, the brewer never followed through. The second advertiser, Unilever Canada Inc., said it put the question to the agencies that produce its TV spots and they responded that they didn't have anything to contribute to the subject. Broadcaster Global Television similarly said there was no story on its end, but didn't elaborate on why not. Thinking about the topic certainly brings to light the fact that for all the high-definition programming I've watched I can't recall if the commercials appeared to be of the same quality. And I definitely can't remember being dazzled by any particular advertisement's stunning visuals. So are any advertisers seeing additional value in paying the extra fee to produce creative in HD? "Food advertisers are quite taken by the enhanced appetite appeal that HD can offer for products on television," says Bob Reaume, VP of policy and research at the Association of Canadian Advertisers. "Advertisers are notorious for picking over slight tone differences in the colour of reproduction of magazine ads, so anything that can improve the visual experience for the viewer is taken quite seriously." He adds, however, that advertising in HD finds itself in a chicken and the egg scenario, where advertisers are reluctant to make the investment in high-definition creative until there is more HD programming on TV. Of course, the investment in HD programming was already in a chicken and the egg scenario with broadcasters and producers wanting to wait until more Canadians had HD sets and service before producing more shows in HD, and vice versa. But with so many chickens in the room, eventually some of them are going to have to start laying eggs."It reminds me of the closed captioning days," continues Reaume. "Advertisers wouldn't move to get their commercials captioned and pay the extra expense if there was only one hour or two hours of captioned programming on the air. It's kind of the same thing now, once we hit critical mass of a good amount of HD programming being broadcast, advertisers will start producing entirely in HD."In all fairness, the commitment by broadcasters and producers to putting more HD programming on the air seems to be increasing at a healthy rate. If nothing else, advertisers will have to make the change too just to keep pace with the eventual technology of choice. "The way we look at it is if you're a plumber, you want the latest equipment," says Reaume. "And if you're in broadcasting and broadcasting is going towards HD, you'd better get there, otherwise you'll be left behind. So that's kind of where we are right now."

What’s the status of high-definition advertising? Good question

Broadcast | November 19, 2007

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