More commercials

[mick]

sorry, what jeff said got me to thinking about this funny cartoon

 

[PJ]

I'm not a fan of the split screen but it is an evil necessity. With people either fast forwarding through commercials or like Ray grabbing a beer and peeing, the split screen means a chance of more eyes seeing the ad.
We all scream about needing more sponsors, well they have to see ROI, the split screen is a way to deliver more people.

I get the complaint, we are so inundated with ads nowadays that for the most part I think they have little effect.
Now they don't do it doing actual race action, so I fast forward through it anyway, just like a normal ad.

 

[J]

I'm not a fan of the split screen but it is an evil necessity. With people either fast forwarding through commercials or like Ray grabbing a beer and peeing, the split screen means a chance of more eyes seeing the ad.
We all scream about needing more sponsors, well they have to see ROI, the split screen is a way to deliver more people.

I get the complaint, we are so inundated with ads nowadays that for the most part I think they have little effect.
Now they don't do it doing actual race action, so I fast forward through it anyway, just like a normal ad.

Maybe they could make it just a commercial without the sound,that would be better at least?

 

[PJ]

Maybe they could make it just a commercial without the sound,that would be better at least?

They already have those. Every banner you see at the track, the wraps on the cars, the graphics on the screen, the overlay on the track during TV coverage. All of those are commercials without sound.

If we want more cars, they need money, money comes from sponsors and sponsors have to sell their stuff to make it worth their while.

 

[SoCal Racer]

I find the split screen commercials particularly annoying and FFWD through them anyway, but then my viewing experience is tainted and less enjoyable. Thing is even though I FFWD through the regular ads, I still see who the advertiser is. If I was interested I'd watch the ad, but truth be told it's exceptionally rare that any TV ad is compelling enough for me to buy a product.

 

[PJ]

I find the split screen commercials particularly annoying and FFWD through them anyway, but then my viewing experience is tainted and less enjoyable. Thing is even though I FFWD through the regular ads, I still see who the advertiser is. If I was interested I'd watch the ad, but truth be told it's exceptionally rare that any TV ad is compelling enough for me to buy a product.

me too, we are so bombarded with various types of ads in all forms of life that it's just become white noise. Unless it's really funny or memorable you can ask me 15 seconds after a commercial what it was for and I'll have no idea.

 

[NITRO JUNKIE]

The people in the board rooms know what they are doing and know the best way to sell their product. If I owned a company I would do the same thing. I think it’s a great way to do it because if you try to skip the add you might skip the race.

 

[SoCal Racer]

The people in the board rooms know what they are doing and know the best way to sell their product. If I owned a company I would do the same thing. I think it’s a great way to do it because if you try to skip the add you might skip the race.

I would submit that people in boardrooms *think* they know what they are doing, and probably don't care how much it detracts from the viewer's experience. I suspect the younger generation just accepts pervasive marketing as "the way it is," and probably does a better job of ignoring it. I get that, but the world wasn't always 24-7-365 ads in your face via every form of media. Maybe they could split-screen the split screen with even more ads to make it just a bit more annoying

Fortunately they only used the split screen when cars were backing from a burnout. Taking up 2/3 of the screen space during an actual run would be the last time I ever watched the show.

 

[BaldyLochs]

Yeah; this is atleast better than taking scheduled and pre-planned TV timeouts like football and hockey do. (regardless of what’s going on with the game mind you) As mentioned above, the officials will hold play until signaled to proceed.

Nice burnout Cruz; you’re perfectly lined up in the groove. Everything good under there guys? whoops hold on there before you drop that body back down - we have a 60 second timeout then you can pre-stage........

 

[sammi]

On has to wonder why a 3+ hour telecast of similar cars running in circles enhanced with truly dreadful commentary puts 6 times as many eyes on the screen as a motorsport that is rapidly changing and has a high degree of randomness. Is it the youth of the drivers? Is it the heavy involvement of sponsors? The one huge difference between the two is if my NHRA hero goes out round one, he or she is gone for the remainder of the event. Jimmy Johnson, no matter how bad his car is this year is always paddling around somewhere during the telecast. I sometimes think NASCAR has trained us to watch them and trained us to accept how monotonous their sport is to watch. Frankly, after seeing NASCAR at the Fontucky race, it is more boring in person.

 

[mikebcurve]

On has to wonder why a 3+ hour telecast of similar cars running in circles enhanced with truly dreadful commentary puts 6 times as many eyes on the screen as a motorsport that is rapidly changing and has a high degree of randomness. Is it the youth of the drivers? Is it the heavy involvement of sponsors? The one huge difference between the two is if my NHRA hero goes out round one, he or she is gone for the remainder of the event. Jimmy Johnson, no matter how bad his car is this year is always paddling around somewhere during the telecast. I sometimes think NASCAR has trained us to watch them and trained us to accept how monotonous their sport is to watch. Frankly, after seeing NASCAR at the Fontucky race, it is more boring in person.

Great point! I've often wondered how NASCAR stays relevant. The world we live in is so fast paced and everyone has short attention spans. Seems drag racing is perfect for this generation. Everything in quick short spurts.

 

[PJ]

On has to wonder why a 3+ hour telecast of similar cars running in circles enhanced with truly dreadful commentary puts 6 times as many eyes on the screen as a motorsport that is rapidly changing and has a high degree of randomness. Is it the youth of the drivers? Is it the heavy involvement of sponsors? The one huge difference between the two is if my NHRA hero goes out round one, he or she is gone for the remainder of the event. Jimmy Johnson, no matter how bad his car is this year is always paddling around somewhere during the telecast. I sometimes think NASCAR has trained us to watch them and trained us to accept how monotonous their sport is to watch. Frankly, after seeing NASCAR at the Fontucky race, it is more boring in person.

Do people actually watch the entire race? Admittedly I don't watch so my experience is from what I hear from coworkers and friends that are fans but it seems people end up napping for long parts of the race or put it on and do stuff around the house. Its more background noise and they pay attention near the end. Again my sample size is very small but I do wonder how many dedicated eyes are actually paying attention to the entire time vs how many TVs are tuned in.

 

[Bruno]

These cable tv adds cannot be that expensive as they play the same ones over and over again. Bombard us with 8 commercials repeatedly and the advertisers are convinced by the programmers that it is worth it? When was the last time you bought something because of a tv add? I would submit that it should be limited to only a couple companies that are "presenting" the show on tv with references to them briefly throughout the show and charge them what would be collected by having 8 or more advertisers. The money is the same to the programmers. I am not talking about the "presenters" of the NHRA event that is annoying in itself...."TheAutomobileClubofAmericanationalspresentedbyprotecttheharvest.com.....".

 

[Rudos1]

Big Soccer matches in Europe and F1 racing have one major sponsor per event and NO commercials during breaks but I don't hold my breath that it would be like that here for USA sports..

 

[PJ]

These cable tv adds cannot be that expensive as they play the same ones over and over again. Bombard us with 8 commercials repeatedly and the advertisers are convinced by the programmers that it is worth it? When was the last time you bought something because of a tv add? I would submit that it should be limited to only a couple companies that are "presenting" the show on tv with references to them briefly throughout the show and charge them what would be collected by having 8 or more advertisers. The money is the same to the programmers. I am not talking about the "presenters" of the NHRA event that is annoying in itself...."TheAutomobileClubofAmericanationalspresentedbyprotecttheharvest.com.....".

I believe the argument is that by the repetition you don't necessarily always go to the store to get that brand (although that is a possible outcome) but when you are standing in the aisle debating which brand to get that theirs jumps out, maybe you remember where you heard it from, maybe you just know you've heard stuff about it; regardless the ad, in theory, has planted that seed in your memory.

 

[SoCal Racer]

I think you're right PJ.... that brand (name) familiarity thing works for politicians. "Who's this guy? never heard of him.....I'll take my chances with Mr. Corrupto because he's always in the news." Also on the subject of ad psychology, as I mentioned earlier, even fast forwarding through the ads it still registers who the advertiser is.

On has to wonder why a 3+ hour telecast of similar cars running in circles enhanced with truly dreadful commentary puts 6 times as many eyes on the screen as a motorsport that is rapidly changing and has a high degree of randomness. Is it the youth of the drivers? Is it the heavy involvement of sponsors? The one huge difference between the two is if my NHRA hero goes out round one, he or she is gone for the remainder of the event. Jimmy Johnson, no matter how bad his car is this year is always paddling around somewhere during the telecast. I sometimes think NASCAR has trained us to watch them and trained us to accept how monotonous their sport is to watch. Frankly, after seeing NASCAR at the Fontucky race, it is more boring in person.

Sometimes..... I can't count the number of times one of the Force girls was gone in round one, yet (mostly in the Reiff era) I'd hear their name and even see their image repeatedly throughout the broadcast or prior to a commercial break. Other first round losers? You'd never know they were at the race.

My son was taken to the NASCAR race at Fontucky by a business associate and said the same thing.....even more boring in person.

 

[zippy]

Just feel lucky enough that the races are on TV. They don't get very good ratings at all, so who cares if even half the coverage is commercials.