As in maybe a year ago, if you wanted to watch Jenna Marbles talk to her dogs or Lady Gaga's strange extended music video on Youtube, you took the chance that you would most likely endure a 30 to 60 second commercial beforehand. For you, that is 30 to 60 seconds of something you may or may not want to watch. For advertisers, that is just a short spot to grab your attention.
And now...
You see things like this:
But what does that mean for advertisers?
From an obvious standpoint, they now have just 5 seconds to grab your attention and stop your mouse from clicking the "skip this ad now" button. According to "The New Science of Viral Ads" from the Harvard Business Review, effective online video advertising takes the audience on an "emotional roller coaster" during a 60-second spot. Also, the article points out the problems advertisers attempt to combat for these types of ads which include:
• brand logos that are too prominent in the commercial
• viewers getting bored
• viewers enjoying the ad but not taking the time to share it with others
What happens now that viewers can skip an ad at 5 seconds? Attempting to capture the viewer's attention in the time it takes to walk from the Tv to the couch is a challenge all on its own. As an Advertising and Promotions major, I am fascinated by the demands of getting an audience's attention. As a person who uses Youtube everyday, I enjoy being able to click to skip and get to the video I want. However, sometimes, I find myself actually sitting to watch the ad. What could have possibly grabbed my attention in five minutes? A lot of time its the music they play, or if I see a movie trailer starting.
My point? When you attempt to reach your audience, where you thought you were given 60-seconds one day, you may have 5 the next. As technology advances, people's attention spans shorten. Even from an article only a year old describing the challenges of a 60-second online spot, advertising has already taken a challenging turn.
Source: Teixeira, Thales. "The New Science Of Viral Ads." Harvard Business Review 90.3 (2011): 25-27.Business Source Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
Sooo true...Its funny because i was just ranting about this the other day when i found out that Dom Mazzetti is coming to new haven. Ok i was just amazed that these little teens run out and waste 20 bucks to see some online celeb? The guy sits at home and makes videos on youtube daily.
ReplyDeletePeople like Dom and all these other over night celebrities are goldmines for advertising! It's nuts that the world has changed and its due to technology advancement.
I completely agree! We want the best of both worlds-- ad appreciation and instantly getting to our shows, clips and songs without ads standing in our way! I think that adding more catchy music and interesting commercials, as you said, would help to keep viewers attention on the ad rather than quickly skipping through them. I also think that this can push advertisers to do more than just settle for creating bare bones, boring ads.
ReplyDeleteI have found that more often that not, when I have the option to skip an advertisement I find myself actually watching the ad rather than skipping it. Usually the Skip button appears on some of the 'cooler' commercials but sometimes it does show up for those boring ads and it doesn't take me more than a second to decide that I want to skip it sometimes. Even half way through the ad, I'll end up getting bored and skip it, which is nice.
ReplyDeleteI hate all these advertisements before watching a video. The NBA does the same thing. I usually try to get a recap of the nights events beforehand and then the commercial comes up when all im after is a 9 second highlight of a dunk. It's miserable, and it makes me stop watching.
ReplyDeleteAdvertising helps keep content free for the consumer. I watch an ad if it a new one, if it is one I've seen before and I remember the whole thing I will skip it too. I guess it depends on what kind of mood I'm in. I chose advertising as a major because I like it, print/TV/radio, it's all interesting to me. I guess when it comes to Internet ads we need to figure out how to get our message across in a shorter amount of time, we need a good "headline" in our streaming ads so the "skimmers" get the main selling point too.
ReplyDeleteI had noticed this over the last year, too. It definitely was a welcome development for me, the end-user of Youtube. However you raise a good point in that if advertisements are skipped after just 5 seconds, what's the point? I almost never let them play out, and what that tells me is that maybe advertisers are a bit behind the curve and not necessarily taking into account that they have to grab me MUCH sooner.
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