• Ad Age, Monday, September 13, 2010 10:38 PM

As over-the-counter marketers bumped up the share of their TV commercials from 25% 15-sec spots in 2007 to 63% last year and 65% so far this year, their market share has eroded to private label faster than those of other package-goods categories. And it may be no coincidence. Copy-testing firm Ameritest has found a marked decrease in ad effectiveness for 15's vs. 30's, particularly for OTC brands.

The ratio of 15s to 30s has been rising fairly quickly for all marketers since 2007. The shorter form now accounts broadly for anywhere from a quarter to 35% of conventional TV ads, up from 20% to 26% three years ago, with the higher ratio among national ads as opposed to all ads, according to ad-tracking firms Competitrack and Ameritest. For 37 over-the-counter ads in the study, with 4,000 consumer panelists, the drop-off was more than twice as steep proportionately, from an already-lower 36% level for 30's to 25% for 15s.

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