Mobile Video Advertising: Making Unskippable Ads

In the face of a mobile revolution, consider this: Should where we’re telling stories change how we’re telling stories? How should video advertising evolve for mobile? Google’s Art, Copy & Code team set out to find an answer. Here we explore the results of our first experiment.

Our mobile devices have become constant companions. They’re in our hands, in our pockets, and on our bedside tables—everywhere we are. They’re often the first thing we look at in the morning and one of the last things we check before turning in for the night. So what does this powerful connection mean for creatives and the stories we tell? And how does that small screen affect the way people experience these stories?

Ad creatives have long lamented mobile. The small screen can be a challenging canvas for big stories. Yet we know that brands can establish a deeper personal connection on mobile, more so than on TV or desktop. So as the mobile world increasingly shifts to video, brands need to figure out how to tell new and better brand stories on mobile devices.

Introducing Unskippable Labs

What resonates with people in mobile video advertising? And how is that different from what resonates on TV? Nobody knows. The best way to try to understand this emerging mobile world is to experiment: Put creative out there and see what people respond to in meaningful, measurable ways.

Using YouTube TrueView, an ad format that allows people to choose if they want to watch or skip an ad, we tested three alternate cuts of the same story to understand what makes an ad worth watching. We also used Google’s Brand Lift solution to gather metrics like ad recall and brand awareness, which helped us understand if particular cuts were more impactful than others. Our key question with these experiments was simply: What makes an ad unskippable?

Full article attached and available at http://bit.ly/1K0AAtv (link is external)