A few nights ago as I was watching the season finale of ‘Rescue Me’ on my DVR, I noticed that my husband stopped fast forwarding through the commercials a little earlier than usual. It seemed that the commercial break had been shortened. But what we were really looking at wasn’t the return to the awaited finale – it was a montage of Rescue Me clips throughout the years, sponsored by BMW.

Of course, this approach isn’t unprecedented. Nor was it the most creative way to do it. Dove ran some very smart, funny, relevant ads during Mad Men a little over a year ago that emulated the recognizable environment of the Mad Men set to sell their product. It was a fun, entertaining way to make you stop and see what happened.

The question is – is it really necessary to cut through DVR fast forwarding at all? As it is, only 34% of the population have DVR devices in their homes. And a 2010 Zogby International Poll reported that only 27% of adults prefer to watch recorded TV (live TV preference was 47%).

According to a qualitative study done this spring, a more formidable threat to commercial watching is the Smartphone. It seems people are more likely to use mobile devices than they are to hit the fast forward button during the commercial breaks.

Of course, there were only 48 people involved in the study, so I wouldn’t go making marketing decisions based on it. But when you combine the results with the ever-increasing usage of mobile devices, you have to at least consider the possibility that a combo TV/mobile approach may be a more wide-reaching and effective one than a DVR trick.

Whichever way you go, make it worth it. Do it in a way that no one has done it before. And as always, make sure it’s relevant to your audience. That goes for every part of your marketing plan.