Advertisers tinker with commercial lengths in order to stand
out
Marketers are increasingly willing to buy commercials in different lengths and
configurations.
In an effort to stand out amid a sea of 30-second commercials, advertisers already use spots that
run 120-seconds in length, or 90, and 45 or 40. There are also 10-second spots or 15, or even a
"blink-and-you-may-miss-it" 5-second ads.
Puma athletic wear, for example, recently unveiled a campaign that features buff athletes in 15second spots that are paired, in a mix-and-match manner, in 30-second time slots. And to
promote three cars that can go from zero to 60 miles an hour in under 5 seconds, Cadillac
recently ran 5-second commercials.
TV commercials that are longer than 30 seconds are intended to attract attention by providing
marketers more time to tell stories that would appeal to viewers. Spots that are shorter than 30
seconds are meant to have a surprise effect: they are usually over before commercial avoiders
can zap or zip past them.
When television started out as an advertising medium, the standard commercial length was 60
seconds. Thirty-second spots began running shortly after cigarette manufacturers left the
airwaves in 1971. Television networks worried that the lost revenue from tobacco marketers
would hurt their revenues, so they started offering 30-second time periods at prices lower than
their 60-second counterparts in order to entice more advertisers to buy time.
The 15-second commercial made its appearance in the 80s as a way to compensate for the
rapidly rising cost of 30-second spots. The 15-second format is a length that is more flirtatious
and more digestible for the attention spans that exist today. Sometimes there just isn't the need to
move to a longer format.
The athletes in the Puma commercials, which were created internally, are Johnny Damon of the
Boston Red Sox, the soccer player Cobi Jones and the skateboarder Scott Bourne. Each appears
in their own 15-second spot and the spots are then paired in 30-second packages such as JonesDamon, Jones-Bourne and Damon-Bourne.
Marketers looking for alternatives to the practice of running one 30-second spot after another is
not new. After 15-second commercials became popular, many advertiser who bought them ran
them in a format known as a bookend: two 15-second spots run at the start and end of a block of
commercials, bracketing spots of other, unrelated advertisers.
Another way to package spots is to pair a 40-second ad with a 20-second one and then purchase
a 60-second time block from a broadcaster. While a full 60-second commercial can seem too
creatively extravagant and a 30 too restrictive, some advertisers can take advantage of the
creative freedoms and financial economies a 60-second time slot can offer.
Despite the desire among many marketers to find alternatives to television as the medium grows
more expensive and cluttered, " `TV is still effective because it reaches people quickly and has all
the powers of emotion,' " says Paul Venables, co-creative director at San Francisco-based
Venables, Bell & Partners.
Ten-second commercials are an even shorter alternative to a 15-second spot. The ads generally
run at the beginning or end of programs to announce sponsorship of closed captioning for
hearing-impaired viewers or to identify so-called promotional considerations, as when marketers
supply merchandise as prizes for game shows.
From a 10-second spot, it is not much of a stretch to continue cutting even further to a 5-second
ad. In the right circumstance, the length of the commercial can add intrinsic value to the
message.
When Cadillac advertised their CTS-V, STS-V and XLR-V - all with V8 supercharged engines that
allow them to go from 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds - the length of the add was natural fit. " `We
thought the 5-second commercials would attract a lot of attention and make an impact on people
who might not consider Cadillac, and they definitely did,' " says Jay Spenchian who was the
marketing director at Cadillac in Detroit until his recent appointment to general manager of Saab
Cars USA. The Cadillac commercials were accompanied by a website and a contest for aspiring
filmmakers to create five-second movies.
Shorter commercials are great for products that already have a very high level of brand
recognition and do not have to explain what they are or what they do, says Gene DeWitt,
chairman at DeWitt Media Options in New York, a media-strategy consulting company. However,
many other products need more time to clearly communicate their marketing messages.
The trend toward alternative lengths and formats will only accelerate, predicts DeWitt. " `Down
the road, I'm convinced we'll be able to choose our lengths. There'll be no reason not to do a 7second spot or a 14 or a 33.' "
Source: New York Times, 04/08/2005 "TV Commercials Adjust to a Shorter Attention Span"
Short, sweet, early and once is the way to go
Canadians tell Léger Marketing how and when commercials are most
effective.
Léger Marketing conducted a survey of 1,504 Canadians in June, asking their opinions
on TV advertising. They were given a seven-point scale, with seven being "very
effective" and one being "not effective at all." The results show that Canadians like their
commercials short, sweet and to the point. They also revealed that about 46% of
Canadians have purchased a product after seeing it on TV, well ahead of radio (28%)
and outdoor advertising (21%).
Jean-Marc Léger of Léger Marketing says the survey results give many reasons to be
optimistic; not only does 46% of Canadians represent well over 10 million people, but
that's only those that admit to being influenced by advertising. According to the survey,
27% of people say advertising doesn't affect them at all, but many people aren't
comfortable saying that they're directly influenced by what they see on TV, and some are
simply not good at self-evaluation.
The question, Léger says, is not whether TV has an impact on purchase decisions, it
clearly does, but how can it be more effective in influencing these decisions.
The challenge facing agencies across Canada is coming up with ads that make people
want to buy, and while the creative is key, there are technical issues to look at as well.
The length of the ad is one; according to the survey, more Canadians prefer 30-second
ads (26%) than 60-second ads (15%). Canadians also don't want to wait to find out
what's being advertised; 31% prefer that the product be shown or named at the start of
the commercial, compared to 20% that want to wait until the end to have it revealed.
Another interesting discovery is that people do get sick of ads if they're shown too often
during the same program, something media buyers, advertisers and broadcasters might
consider when thinking about GRPs. The survey said that 26% of Canadians prefer to
see an ad just once during a show, while 19% think showing an ad repeatedly is more
effective.
Léger cautions that while the results of the survey are enlightening, it's important to
remember that the respondents most likely said what they prefer, and not what is actually
more effective in selling. However, viewer perspective and feeling is intrinsically linked
with improved purchase intent, and advertising that is too long, too ambiguous or too
frequent can turn a buyer off.
Advertising Effectiveness
Types of Advertising
Top 2 (rated 6
or 7, out of 7)
Ads that are less than 30
seconds
26%
60 second ads
15%
Showing the product at the
beginning of the ad
31%
Waiting until the end of the ad
to show the product
20%
Showing an ad once during a
program
26%
Showing an ad several times
during a program
19%
Source: Marketing, 08/15/05, "Short, sweet and to the point"
The 30-second spot is here to stay
A number of experts give their take on the future of 30-second commercials.
Some time ago the average length of a TV spot was 60-seconds, however, the 30second spot has become the norm in recent years. Advertisers are now considering
using 20-second and possibly 10-second spots because people are constantly being
exposed to multiple forms of media. But the question remains: will the 30-second spot
die?
Greg Cox, founder of AdFusion, believes that the 30-second spot is by no means dead.
Shorter spots are too short to convey a brand, or communicate important product
information. On the other hand, the 60-second spot may fail to maintain viewers'
attention, unless it is particularly engaging. Like any other form of advertising, when a 30second spot sufficiently relays pertinent information to new and existing customers, the
ad will undoubtedly be successful.
According to Layton Dorey, managing director of Bristol Group, the future of the 30second spot is looking just as good as ever before. Bristol Group's quarterly survey of
public opinion found that on any given day, 84 percent of Atlantic Canadians consume
two or more hours of television, compared with 48 percent of people who spend the
same amount of time listening to the radio, and 31 percent who are online for two or
more hours each day. Also, 95 percent of those surveyed said that the most memorable
ad they could think in the last month ran on TV.
Jennifer Ayotte, an associate of Impact Communications Group Inc., concedes that the
30-second spot is indeed here to stay. It is up to advertisers to ensure that commercials
are so creative and entertaining that they succeed in capturing people's attention. Good
advertising means that people pay attention to ads. For instance, Super Bowl
commercials are so engaging that without the 30-second spot, no one would say
"Whassup?"
President of Words Worth Communication Consulting Mark Campbell thinks the use of
"minisodes" will increase as marketers make use of ongoing storylines and interesting
characters to get commercial messages across, as opposed to spots becoming shorter
in length. He also expects more sponsorships and product placement appearing in TV
shows.
Shawn Green, president of VMP Group in Sydney, says that advertisers are in a
continual process of competing for viewers' attention. They need to ensure that spots are
visually appealing and noticeable thereby continually raising the bar when it comes to
cutting through clutter and producing engaging commercials. When it comes to TV
advertising, it is imperative to get people's attention right off the bat.
Source: thechronicleherald.ca, 08/28/07, "Gone in 20 seconds"
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