Here’s why ultra-short ads make sense for media businesses.
Many digital platforms ration the number of ads that appear around videos in order to – you guessed it – make them less intrusive and annoying. They also use algorithms to place more ads around “good content.” The thinking is that people will be more willing to sit through an ad if there is a compelling video to watch after it finishes.
What counts as good content? For all Silicon Valley’s talk of artificial intelligence and neural networks, my understanding is that it’s largely videos that attract lots of views and most people watch more or less to the end.
How do you get more viewership for your videos? Reduce the risk of people clicking or swiping away, by making ads shorter and less intrusive. And if more people watch your videos, then the algorithm will serve more ads around them and you can generate more ad revenue to reinvest in great content.
All in all, ultra-short ads promise a virtuous circle for content owners, advertisers, and platform owners. More videos watched, more ads served, and more revenues generated.
Ultra-short ads are already with us – in spirit
The 30-second spot is proving stubbornly popular with buyers of both traditional and digital advertising. A series of sub-10 second ads for Adidas and Harbin Beer shown around the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament are among the few mainstream examples of ultra-short ads.
Advertisers are starting to experiment with Twitter, Facebook, and other digital platforms to go as long and short as they want as well as exploiting time-limited formats, such as Vessel’s 3–5 second spots, Vine’s 6-second loops, and Instagram’s 1-second boomerangs.
Even buyers of “longer” 30-second digital spots are embracing the ultra-short ethos. Given that many emerging platforms enable consumers to swipe away or quickly scroll past, creatives are loading their clients’ messages towards the beginning of their video ads.
Facebook is encouraging its advertising customers to “make the first few seconds count” and “focus on storytelling, not length.” It touts a study commissioned from media measurement firm Nielsen that shows that two-thirds to three-quarters of an ad’s impact on recall, brand awareness, and purchase intent happens in the first 10 seconds.
Resisting the romance of the traditional TV spot
The ultra-short ad concept will only succeed if brands buy into it, regardless of how well it sits with consumers. After all, it is the brands that are the customers of advertising; the audience is merely the product the platforms are selling. And history has shown that platforms are more inclined to side with their paymasters.
As well as proving ultra-short ads work – by say, driving awareness or increasing sales – platforms will have to counter the emotional investment the advertising business has with the traditional TV spot. The industry has a reputation for glamour and many executives would no doubt like to be making or funding classic creative like Ridley Scott’s “1984” ad for Apple or Jonathan Glazer’s “Surfer” ad for Guinness.
Such ads will continue to exist, as shown by the continued success of the Christmas ads from UK retailer John Lewis. We will also see longer ads of several minutes provided they promote products worthy of such attention and are presented in ways that engage rather than annoy viewers (though the lines between these ads and branded content will blur).
But I can’t help but think that the vast majority of products and brands don’t deserve even 30 seconds of airtime. Perennially high levels of ad-skipping, growing use of ad-blockers, and the phenomenal popularity of ad-free services such as Netflix suggest many consumers agree. Less intrusive ultra-short ads are an option the industry can’t afford to ignore.
Rob Gallagher is senior analyst for Ovum