USAToday Reviews the Netflix Commercials

USAToday is running a story in the Advertising & Marketing section about the Netflix commercials, More Moviegoers Watch at Home. It looks like the commercials are doing well:

Consumers like the ads, according to results from Ad Track, USA TODAY's weekly survey. Of those familiar with the ads, 17% like them "a lot," near the Ad Track average of 21%. And 23% rate the ads "very effective," vs. the average of 21%.

What do you think of the Netflix commercials?

Thanks to Joe for sending this in.

Comments

[Becky]

I don't know. I'm so busy watching Netflix, I don't have time for TV anymore.

[Hunter McDaniel]

The ads are cute. But I think they are missing an opportunity by not marketing Netflix directly against Cable and Satellite providers. What's a better deal - $50 per month for 500 channels with nothing on, or $18 for as many discs as most folks have time for, all of them shows which YOU want to see?

[ThrottleFlix]

"What's a better deal - $50 per month for 500 channels with nothing on, or $18 for as many discs as most folks have time for, all of them shows which YOU want to see?"

Netflix doesn't want to compete against the Idiot Box. They'll Lose. The average person watches 4 hours of TV a day. Even a "light"
viewer will watch 2 hrs a day. ThrottleFlix barely provides enough DVDs to watch 2 hrs a day on their 8-out plan. To watch 4 hours a day would require two 8-out subscriptions.

The best strategy is to join multiple online DVD services. That way, the DVDs that one of them lacks, the other will usually have. And you minimize the throttling problem, because you watch DVDs from one service while you're waiting for replacements from another. It's stupid to pay premium rates for ThrottleFlix to just throttle you more. You're putting a sign on your back that says "kick me."

[Pastings]

" don't know. I'm so busy watching Netflix, I don't have time for TV anymore."

The Ultimate Netflix Shill

Actually, where I am, cable sucks so badly that I am tempted to give Netflix the $24/mo I pay for it (Yes, that's very cheap - it's the reason I endure it rather than go sattelite). Netflix may throttle, but at least I have yet to see a disc come through with snow on it.

[barf]

I don't think TV commercials really address the target demographic of Netflix. They need to position themselves as a replacement for TV, not just another medium of distribution. Unfortunately, they're just not fast enough. ThrottleFlix is right. You need the 7-out or 8-out plan just to fill up half the time the average person spends watching TV. They need to appeal to people who think that TV sucks. Point out how movies on TV are usually P&S, for instance. How the average person wastes several years of their lives watching dumb commercials (including their own). That'd be great - a commercial that acknowledges that commercials are idiotic garbage.

"Actually, where I am, cable sucks so badly that I am tempted to give Netflix the $24/mo I pay for it (Yes, that's very cheap - it's the reason I endure it rather than go sattelite). Netflix may throttle, but at least I have yet to see a disc come through with snow on it."

1. You must subscribe to some kind of crazy cable system if you are getting snowy signals!? Are you sure you aren't complaining about over-the-air reception?

2. I have yet to see a cable program with so many scratches that I couldn't watch it.

[Mark Thornton]

"I have yet to see a cable program with so many scratches that I couldn't watch it."

Get a BenQ DW1640 burner ($39 online). I bet your problems with scratched scratched DVDs will be gone forever. I've been able to play discs that my old NEC, Plextor, and Pioneer drives choke on. The BenQ reads them without any read retries in DVD Decrypter. These are rentals where the surface is scraped up like somebody sand-papered it. Stand-alone units often fail to play the typical Netflix disc, without any skipping or stuttering.