MM Blog 2/22: My love-hate relationship with the DVR

DVR - or digital video recorder. Many may also refer to this as TiVo or TiVoing. I remember the first time I heard about TiVo. We went to visit our friends the Wolfe's over the holidays I believe at least five years ago, likely. Michael, who is very tech savy had a TiVo and was telling us all about it. I remember thinking, this is my worst nightmare. A big part of my job is developing a marketing plan to drive my brand's sales. If people stopped watching commercials, which was a likely outcome with a TiVo machine, then how would I make people aware of my great new product or new news. Michael of course was in advertising sales for magazines, so he was still safe.

As I sit here watching the Oscar's, knowing I will be in bed by 10pm to give myself enough sleep before my 7am video call begins at the office, I am thanking someone out there for bringing this technology to me. Like most working moms, I try to be as efficient as I can be. I love my blackberry because it lets me be very efficient with my email, utilizing minutes here and there. The DVR is my "leisurely" efficiency machine. No longer do you have to feel guilty that you want to put the kids away in time for your favorite show to begin. Or try to throw a load of laundry in during a commercial break, only to realize you were a minute or two too long.

So while the DVR has made my day job more challenging, it has made it more exciting and fun. I now must reinvent how I communicate with my consumers, as they like me, or the average American who has a DVR has it for a reason. Because they want to watch the show, not the commercials or at least not endless commercials. So me and my colleagues work hard to find our consumers when they are more receptive and talk to them there.

So after some guilt, now after about two years with my DVR I can say I LOVE IT. I love that I know if I don't start Grey's Anatomy until 9:20, I can cruise straight through and be done by 10pm, saving me 20 minutes. Or if I have to go to the bathroom in the middle, it is now big deal. Or if I didn't understand something, I can play it again over and over. And frankly, that when I go on Fox 19, I can watch myself that night just to see how I looked.

For the smart techy people out there, I wish you could put a USB port on the DVR and be able to copy the saved shows to it and then download to my PC...that is my dream.