With the proliferation of mobile technologies and online access over the last decade, understanding how to reach customers through their various screens has become a priority for marketers. Because engaging a customer through an online portal is more like a dialogue, the process for developing that ad content is delicate and nuanced.
But how do you find the balance between effectively reaching your customer through a video ad and annoying them?
New behavioral trends with regards to customer interaction with video ad content are constantly being uncovered. In fact, Extreme Reach, a cloud technology platform for TV and Video ad workflow and Talent and Rights management, recently released a study showing consumers are spending 19 percent more time watching video ads compared to last year. The study also revealed that both viewability and completion rates are both up 20 percent from last year.
To better understand what could be causing this shift in video ad receptiveness among viewers, Modern Marketing Today spoke with Extreme Reach’s CMO Melinda McLaughlin and SVP in Account Management Dascha Bright. Melinda and Dascha both spoke to the evolving world of video ads and how consumers are adapting to them.
When asked about the potential reasoning behind such a noticeable uptick in viewability and completion rates, Dascha responded with, “It seems like consumers are just willing to watch more. Probably they are just more used to seeing ads on their phone and their tablet and their connected TV and getting closer to that TV-like experience.”
It makes sense that as our screens become more deeply ingrained in our everyday lives, video ads just become part of the experience, especially with regards to premium content that you would find on a streaming service like Hulu or YouTube. It more closely replicates that original TV-viewing experience.
One might think a change in content strategy for video ads might prompt better viewing time among consumers and Dascha pointed out the sensitive tipping point for video ad production.
She noted that while succinctness is key in holding a viewer’s attention, video ads that are too short might not convey enough of a story or message to deem the actual production of the ad content worthwhile. And without significant differences in completion rates between a six second video ad and a 30 second video ad, there’s no real reason to minimize that storytelling opportunity more than necessary.
Melinda added to that sentiment and elaborated on video ad content strategy, stating, “The creative industry is seeing a resurgence of storytelling. Maybe we don’t have to change everything and make it six seconds instead of 15 or make it interactive or do all these things. Maybe we can be massively creative to match the form and the function.”
Needless to say, video ads are here to stay and marketers are endlessly working to get through to their target audiences in ways that truly do resonate with them.
