Back in the day, if a TV commercial was good a consumer might, just might ask a friend for his opinion on the product advertised. If the opinion was a favourable one, then the consumer may have sought the product out the next time he was at the mall. Assuming of course that he remembered it on the way to the mall or his memory was jogged by some effective point of sale promotions.

But today, the consumer has millions of friends with him as he watches the TV commercial. And all of those friends are just waiting to pass on their opinion to our consumer. To ask them, all our consumer has to do is key in a word or two into the search cell on his browser on the laptop that is probably on his lap as he watches the TV.

With this in mind, wouldn’t it make sense for advertisers to create TVCs with easy to remember links or search terms that can be keyed in at the same time as the commercial plays? Of course product sites will have to feature the same image of the same product with relevant content and information on local store opening hours and product availability. Messaging and images as well as content in traditional and digital media must be consistent too but this shouldn’t be a problem.

Surely we should move away from the mass market mass economy one message for all approach to this more instant, integrated and engaged approach. What do you think?