Can you believe it? Brands have seen the light.
I mean in the immutable world of "storytelling", and these long (very long) and you did not hear it from me boring (very boring), ads which have taken over advertising these last few years - suddenly a shift occurred.
Honestly, it should have happened long ago, but when clients/marketing departments/creatives get stuck on a format, they try not to change and on the contrary double down. Of course, I am referring to the 30 seconds format (which as I implied earlier got much longer due to the storytelling gimmick).
Trust me, this is not gibberish I am trying to make a point. For a long time, "skip ad" - the one that appears at the 5 seconds mark - was the dreaded button that advertisers feared. And indeed, if there was anything people did not want, it is unwanted (haha) ads prior to watching their video on youtube. Am I one of them? (considering I work in advertising and do nothing but analyze ads, the answer will amaze you) Yes, guilty as charged.
Advertiser Rana Najjar overheard her son explaining to his friend what she does, and the verdict was that "she did those ads we skip before watching Super Mario". If this is not the definition of the average consumer, then I wonder what is.
Still, to go back to the beginning, suddenly brands went into the if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them. They are now producing unskippable ads. How you may ask? By doing superior work people do not wish to skip? By being extremely creative and engaging? By developing stories so arresting the viewers want to follow till the end?...
No, much easier.
They created 5 seconds ads.
Try to skip those if you can! And guess what, you can't.
Honestly the answer is so evident, as they say in French "il fallait y penser" (one had to just think about it!).
Small update:
It seems this post has caused some confusion considering Geico already did their unskippable ads before (see here). And Toyota has this beautiful gem for Yaris (here). The ads I speak of (Pepsi Max, or Lipton tea as examples) are complete, full ads in 5 seconds. No gimmicks, no twists.