It’s the eternal questions for advertisers: What works? Just when you think you’ve figured it out, the world shifts again. One day you hear, it’s all about “snackable” content – short clips that can be viewed in less than a minute. The next day, it’s all about long-form video ads. What’s a marketer to do?
YuMe, Inc.and IPG Media Lab took a look at the effectiveness of different video ad lengths, examining micro and longer form ad formats, devices and consumer perspective.
Here’s the biggest takeawayperhaps: Pre-roll ads are less intrusive than mid-roll or post-roll ads and have the best recall overall.
Key Findings:
- Ads perform differently based on length – developing a creative length strategy is imperative for success
- Micro ads have a leg up on smaller screens, where video takes up 100% of screen real estate and short content is the norm
- Having grown up with short form content, millennials respond best to micro ads, and also tend to see them as higher quality and more enjoyable than older consumers do
- Shorter ads can serve as a quick reminder of established brands to drive top-of-mind awareness and longer ads can be employed to educate about a new brand
- While every device performs differently, the 15 second mark is the shortest amount of time for making an impact on persuasion metrics
“The research conducted with the IPG Media Lab showed us that we can deploy different video ad lengths strategically based on the individual needs of all brands within our portfolio. The research supports the importance of messaging precision and length, given the device the consumer is utilizing.” – MillerCoors Senior Media Manager Dan Langert.
The study sampled nearly 10,000 consumers across PC, smartphone and tablet devices, and tested ads for five brands: Charles Schwab, Hotwire, Jeep, Miller Lite and TV Land. Consumers were driven to content that matched their real-life consumption behaviors.
Prior to the content, consumers were randomly shown a single pre-roll ad of 5, 10, 15, 30, or 45+ seconds. YuMe and IPG Media Lab explored how to effectively engage audiences across all ad lengths, verticals and devices, determining whether traditional branding metrics were impacted. The study also found that short video ads can increase awareness, drive home key messages as well as convey brand imagery.
Micro Ads, but not too short
“With the increasing popularity of new ad lengths, the time was ripe to garner new insights around effectiveness that can help shape both strategy and creative direction. While we found micro ads to be effective with driving recall, especially with millennials, 15 seconds or more were required to drive persuasion metrics.” – Paul Neto, Research Director, YuMe
No one size fits all approach
“The study not only shows that marketers need to be thoughtful about how they deploy various video ad lengths, but also that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all best practice. We need to take a more nuanced approach and customize based on our goals and target audience.” – Kara Manatt, Head of Research, IPG Media Lab.
To download the full report visit, http://www.yume.com/insights/video-advertising-research.
H/T MediaPost
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