Commentary

Short-Form Ads - On Any Platform - Continue To Pair Well With TV Ads

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 15, 2024

Short-form advertising video -- via TV, streaming and digital platforms -- continues to play an important role in effectiveness for brands when it comes to advertisers’ media mix, according to a new study from WARC, an advertising research company.

While the report shows an overall increase in engagement when it comes to adding TikTok advertising to a TV campaign mix -- up 5.5% -- it also touts other short-form video platforms, YouTube Shorts and Meta Platforms' Instagram -- as being powerful tools in generating awareness.

WARC’s report was conducted in partnership with TikTok.

The report also credited other research as well including one on "purchase intent" of short-form video from a study by buy-side media companies, MAGNA, IPG Media Lab, and social media company Snap Inc.

For example, it showed that 6-second pre-roll ads, running before a piece of content, can generate identical lifts in purchase intent compared to 15-second ads.

An overview of social and video platforms shows more than half of social and video platform users consume short-form videos daily -- over 75% of them on smartphones. WARC Media says 70% of advertisers already sell on social platforms.

The report reiterates why short-form video continues to be effective due its rapid nature and immediacy, immersive viewing, and where those ads have not just visual and audio segments, but also textual on screen elements at times.

Even “ultra-short” ads have benefits when it comes to recall.

In one neurological study -- from IPG Mediabrands, and Sanoma, a Netherlands-based publisher -- even a short two-second edit of a 30-second spot, resulted in over “two thirds” of respondents recognizing specific brands.

These ultra short video ad messages, says the report, can be “attentionally efficient.” For example, there was up to a 51% “prompt recall” response for short videos 10-seconds in length; and up to 29% for those two-seconds long.

advertising, attention, campaigns, digital, engagement, intent, media buying, media measurement, meta, research, streaming, television, video

3 comments about "Short-Form Ads - On Any Platform - Continue To Pair Well With TV Ads".

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William Chambers from a4 Advertising, May 15, 2024 at 2:46 p.m.
The source says this is from 2018 - is that correct?? 6 years ago?
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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, May 17, 2024 at 11:59 a.m.

Wayne, you are going to find that very few national TV branding advertisers will buy into the notion that a 6-second pre-roll commercial is as effective as a 15-second commercial in generating sales lifts---especially if that 15-second commercial is in an in-show break in a TV sitcom, drama, football game, etc. As for the claim that 70% of "advertisers" already "sell" products on social media I wonder what that's based on and how the term "advertiser" was defined---national branding, local, search, direct response, etc???

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, May 17, 2024 at 12:06 p.m.

Looking at that table again, I find it difficult to accept an average unaided recall level of 38% for "TV" when past studies conducted by phone immediately after a break have found that only 1-2% of the "audience can name a last advertised brand. And that was over 20 years ago. Most commercial research testing companies will tell you that very few viewers can name what brand was advertised, let alone replay the message's main selling point shortly after exposure without prompting---so one is left to ask what methodology was used in this study?