An informal poll of TiVo & ex-TiVo employees reveals that there’s no standard for transcribing the noise the device makes when moving from normal speed to 1x, 2x or 3x fast-forward. A trivial thing but in my mind, telling example of how TiVo just will never be a marketing-savvy organization.
The TiVo “ba-dum” (or however you want to write it) has HUGE brand value. Every TiVo user has mimicked pressing the remote while simultaneously simulating the associated noise. Sometimes aimed at a colleague during a slow meeting, other times at a friend during a long story, it’s understood that this means – “speed it up and get to the good part.”
Not having a way to uniformly communicate this sound, this experience, well, just feels like a missed opportunity. As if Nike didn’t have a standard description of their famous logo. “Well, some of us call it a waggle, others ‘the zip’ but Dave in Sales thinks it’s a swoosh.”
You’d figure that TiVo would recognize this and leverage the idea – heck, build a whole marketing campaign around “get to the good parts.” But alas, no.
What does that have to do with this blog? Only that my focus is going to be on popular culture – what you should consume, and how to fast-forward 3x to get to the good parts.
I’m not always proud of what I do, but I do it for you.