• Ad Age, Monday, September 13, 2010 10:34 AM

Jack Neff writes that private label is eroding the market share of over-the-counter marketers faster than any packaged good category and finds that there may be a link between pharma's increasing shift from 30-second ads to 15-second spots.

"Copy-testing firm Ameritest has found a marked decrease in ad effectiveness for 15's vs. 30's, particularly for OTC brands, which appear to have handled the edits more poorly than other marketers, even as they used 15s much more often," he reports.

"The companies that live and die by their advertising are stretching their budgets with 15s, and frankly there's a lot for them to learn," said Ameritest CEO Charles Young. "It's an awfully short form for creatives to work with. If it devolves into simply reminder advertising, you're not building brands. You need to bring emotion and news value to those brands."

Then, too, what is the broader impact on all TV advertising from the increased clutter? "Clutter pulls down effectiveness for everyone," said media consultant Erwin Ephron, even if some individual advertisers benefit from shifting money to 15s.

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