Procter & Gamble put the soap in soap opera. It produced the first commercial ever, a spot for Ivory Soap. Before other big advertisers caught on to television's potential, P&G was sponsoring programming in the early days of TV and winning the hearts of homemakers.
Nearly 60 years later, P&G (PG) is at it again. This time it's poised to pounce on digital television, the flashy new broadcast format that will be unrolled in the United States in a few months. The world's biggest advertiser will be among the first to broadcast commercials in ultra-high resolution.
"A lot of people are letting Procter blaze the trail," said David Perry, director of broadcast production at New York-based ad firm https://more-deals.info/news/news/culture/story/14780.html in the United States in a few months. The world's biggest advertiser will be among the first to broadcast commercials in ultra-high resolution.
"A lot of people are letting Procter blaze the trail," said David Perry, director of broadcast production at New York-based ad firm Saatchi & Saatchi. Many Saatchi clients are showing interest in the medium, but P&G is one of the few doing anything about it.
The success and availability of digital TV is far from assured. Only about 40 of the nation's 1,600 TV stations will be broadcasting in digital signals by the end of the year. What's more, the first digital TV sets will cost US$2,800 to $8,000 – not including a separate set-top box to view the reformatted programming.
No matter. Executives at P&G – maker of such household staples as Clearasil, Scope, Bounty, Crest, and Pringles – said it's important to be well-versed in the new medium, even if a large audience is a decade away.
Surprisingly, few other big advertisers are interested. In an informal Wired News survey, General Motors, Chrysler, Ford Motor, Honda, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Circuit City said they don't have plans to examine digital television. Some said they'll be happy to watch the trailblazers for now.
In fact, some competitors said P&G is doing the experiments more for public relations value than serious advertising. "It's almost more indicative of a PR philosophy than a marketing philosophy," said Ellen Oppenheim, media director at Foote, Cone & Belding, the firm that creates ads for Nabisco products like Oreo. Foote, Cone has no current plans for the medium, but the company is watching that space, Oppenheim said.
P&G executives were mum about how much the Cincinnati, Ohio company will spend on digital television. But it already has aired six high-definition commercials in an experimental HDTV broadcast earlier this year. They have at least one more commercial in production.
"They looked terrific," said Jim Gosney, associate director of commercial production at P&G. "The difference is dramatic."
How dramatic? HDTV has the potential for CD-quality surround sound, cinematic quality picture, and an aspect ratio fit for a Spielberg epic. What's more, HDTV-ready ads can be reformatted to run on regular analog broadcasts, and vice versa.
P&G recently shot a high-definition spot for Mountain Spring Fragrance Tide with Bleach with Saatchi & Saatchi. They took advantage of HDTV's wider viewing ratio to capture nature as a backdrop, Gosney said. It can also be cropped to fit in the narrower dimensions of normal TV.
It doesn't cost all that much more, either. A regular commercial costs anywhere between $30,000 to around $1 million. A commercial produced to air on both HDTV and analog broadcasts would cost about 5 percent more, industry executives said.
The question is, would HDTV-ready ads capture the attention of more viewers? P&G may be the first to figure it out. They may even figure out how to make Mr. Whipple less of a grouch.
