The study found that although six-second ads had an average view-through rate of 55% on mobile devices, their emotion score was just 3.6 compared to 5.1 for 30-second ads.
“With mobile now the dominant device in our lives, marketers know that 30 second TV spots will no longer cut it for engaging video ads on the small screen. However, what this research reveals is that simply making an ad shorter won’t necessarily guarantee performance if the emotional connection is lost,” explained Caroline Hugonenc, Global VP Research and Insights, Teads. “We launched Teads Creative Lab to help brands and advertisers understand exactly how their creatives are performing, and provide technology to optimise them for the small screen, with the right impact.”
Meanwhile, emotional impact is a core driver of sales lift with emotional video correlating with a sales lift of 75%. This means that shorter ads may not be able to deliver a narrative in a short amount of time and thus fail to establish a emotional connection.
Six-second mobile ads that told a story did perform better (4.1).
“The explosion of short form content caused by the emergence of mobile and erosion of consumer attention have changed the rules of the game,” added Sorin Patilinet, Director of Centre of Expertise for Marketing Communications at Mars. “We have to learn how to tell brand stories in shorter formats, and get ready for even shorter formats in the near future. Thanks to the research that Teads has led, we are building our learnings on how to drive impact in shorter formats.”
The study also noted that pre-testing for repurposed TV ads is vital to ensure the message comes across on smaller screens. Furthermore, just 16% of six-second video ads tested included a call-to-action, which is often a key driver of engagement.
