"There will be three-second ad units some day.”
That was one of my favorite insights from yesterday's Mobile Insider Summit wrap-up -- focusing a day of programming on aspects of
mobile video, Instagram and Vine. Ian Chee, chief strategy officer at MRY, said that as creatives moved away from the 15-second and 30-second ads that still dominate the desktop to mobile, the formats
will shift and advertisers will develop new ways to tell stories in snapshots. He went on to emphasize how mobile video is different even across platforms on devices. The “culture” of Vine
is different from that of Instagram or the app. “You have to adapt to the culture of the medium and not look at it as one thing. You will be ridiculed because Vine Viewers won't see these
[videos] in the same way Instagram users will see it.”
Adobe's Tamara Gaffney added that the video makers often fail to appreciate the real implications of screen size, not only for
length but for visual scale. “Creative teams work on ginormous screens, and it looks gorgeous.” Not so much on handhelds where the detail becomes microscopic.
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Former CBS
Interactive SVP Jason Kint cautioned publishers about undermining their user relationship with bad video experience. The app environment establishes a more intimate relationship between media brand
and user than does a Web site. The negative impact that a bad app experience can have on the brand far outdistances whatever revenue you are getting from it. Mobile merits greater investment and care
than the current business models seem to merit, in part because the down side to brand reputation can be that much greater here.
Our panel on Instagram and Vine explored further what the
micro-video world of the future looks like. Ed O’Keefe, editor in chief of NowThisNews, said that the mobile video channels like Vine, Instagram, Facebook and even Snapchat have become the place
where the video news service found its format and its traction. The original app experience with longer video news stories performed well, as it extended the formats the company had started on the
Web. But when the NowThisNews clips were re-engineered and distributed through the social channels, things really took off. In fact, the company is now working with Facebook to share the learnings
about nano-video formats that comes from 10,000 clips they have made in the last few years. An especially interesting insight he shared is that short-short video needs to dispense with the
normal story arc and put the most enticing and impactful image/information in those first two to three seconds.
Doner's ECD and Chief Innovation Officer Justin Smith said that immediacy of
these channels is one of the key challenges to both the agency and the brand. Neither is used to moving this fast. “There is a tension when you just want to get it out,” he says. This is
where the younger digital natives are invaluable within the organization. They are wired differently. “New creative don't draw a distinction between ideation and building something,” he
says. Being faster and more efficient in building video will distinguish the agencies and even the brands that come out on top.
A number of these insights come together in the superb Vine
videos from juice brand Bolthouse Farms. Their Director of Brand Engagement Pamela Naumes was with us, and explained that their mobile video and image strategy maps the brand to the medium and the
practical needs of the customer. The Vine videos are 6-second juice drink recipes. The Instagram program has users snap any bottle of Bolthouse product to get back a coupon. The tactic goes far beyond
just being on these platforms to have a presence. She believes it is giving the upstart juice company a way of competing against much larger and better funded rivals in the healthy juice space. Their
approach drives purchase and expands engagement with the product itself.
All of the panelists agreed that the rise of the mobile nano-video format was not just about brevity. The channels
underscored a future where users reject ads in certain venues altogether. Chee warned against kidding ourselves that we are being hipper and more native than we really are. “Ads are not
content,” he said. Stop pretending or deluding ourselves into thinking they are. Trying to pitch people on these channels is a dead end. Better not to be there at all than risk the ill will
engendered by transparent attempts to reformat the 30-second spot.