Brian Haven blogging on the Forrester Research site observes how a mysterious ad flashing on LOST, turns out to be a way marketers are beginning to use TiVo as a creative tool in the battle to circumvent ad skipping.

I had said something very similar to this in my previous post.

This has implications for anyone thinking of non-linear campaigns. First, we need to think of how the three screens will complement each other. No longer will we be able to compartmentalize budgets into TV, mobile and PC. There can not be a TiVo strategy without a plan to get into YouTube, for instance. Cross-channel will also pull in podcasts into the mix. Notice how Fox has ‘foxcasts‘ to integrate the TV programs with the RSS-driven media audiences.

Then, we’ll need to find an alternative to the ratings system –to make sense of how viewers migrate back and forth to their different media for any given program or commercial interaction…er, ad. DVR’s will probably include some serious tracking capability in a few years.

Imagine how this will play out when IPTV comes into the mix, and the Nielsen-meets-TiVo kind of metrics become available. There was a WSJ article a year ago where a media buyer is quoted as saying that if people are not watching a show live, they don’t count –as they probably don’t watch the commercials. If they do, he said, then these viewings are "too late to matter." Going by Brian Haven”s experience, media buyers who see the DVR as a problem, not a benefit, will have to eat their words.