Book Commercials
When was the last time you were watching TV and you saw a commercial for a book? I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but it was a long time ago and I think it was for Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Basically, a book that has mass, mass appeal.
That begs the question: why don't more new books that comes out get a commercial? Why aren't there trailers or spots for books sandwiched between the "McCafe Your Day" and "Think Outside the Bun" messages that dominate commercial breaks?
It may be because there's almost no overlap between the demographics that watch TV and those that read books. Or maybe there's just not enough money to be made from any one book to devote TV ad time to it. Books tend to have niche audiences, whereas Charmin Ultra can cost-effectively advertise on television simply because we all need toilet paper.
Maybe the publishing industry is, and always was, ahead of its time. They recognize that people buy books based on something other than what an advertisement told them to. The last several dozen books I bought were based on word of mouth recommendations, trusted advice from people I respect, and Amazon cross-sells from other books I read and really liked. I've never seen a flyer for a book and thought, "I must read that."
This is, I think, becoming truer for a lot of other industries and not just the book industry. People can have conversations about anything via social media, so the potential exists to give people something they love, and can talk about, instead of yelling at people through the boob tube. Commercials are faceless, impersonal, and irrelevant, which is why we're all so good at tuning them out.
There may come a day when toilet paper is no longer an undifferentiated commodity produced by a national corporation. "Buy Local" could apply to toilet paper. If it were your company producing it, how would you start that conversation?
That begs the question: why don't more new books that comes out get a commercial? Why aren't there trailers or spots for books sandwiched between the "McCafe Your Day" and "Think Outside the Bun" messages that dominate commercial breaks?
It may be because there's almost no overlap between the demographics that watch TV and those that read books. Or maybe there's just not enough money to be made from any one book to devote TV ad time to it. Books tend to have niche audiences, whereas Charmin Ultra can cost-effectively advertise on television simply because we all need toilet paper.
Maybe the publishing industry is, and always was, ahead of its time. They recognize that people buy books based on something other than what an advertisement told them to. The last several dozen books I bought were based on word of mouth recommendations, trusted advice from people I respect, and Amazon cross-sells from other books I read and really liked. I've never seen a flyer for a book and thought, "I must read that."
This is, I think, becoming truer for a lot of other industries and not just the book industry. People can have conversations about anything via social media, so the potential exists to give people something they love, and can talk about, instead of yelling at people through the boob tube. Commercials are faceless, impersonal, and irrelevant, which is why we're all so good at tuning them out.
There may come a day when toilet paper is no longer an undifferentiated commodity produced by a national corporation. "Buy Local" could apply to toilet paper. If it were your company producing it, how would you start that conversation?