Short-Form, Big Impact
The AOL On Network has the largest, premium short-form video library on the web. To explore the effect of content length on ad effectiveness, AOL partnered with Qualvu and released a new study designed to provide insight into how consumers perceive ads within both long- and short-form premium video content. What we learned may surprise you.
The study found that ads in short-form content actually produce significantly higher recall, brand affinity and purchase intent than those in long-form content.
Additional findings include:
- Ads in short-form videos are more effective than ads in long-form content. More specifically, short-form video produced a 25 percent higher brand recall and a 42 percent higher purchase intent for the featured product or service.
- Viewers are adopting traditional avoidance behaviors during ads within long-form videos. Respondents found the ads to be too frequent and interruptive; as a result, they chose to avoid them altogether (by walking away, going to other sites, multitasking with their phone). This is the same “annoyance” behavior that is demonstrated when viewing television without the use of a DVR.
- Consumers want more targeted and humorous ads in both formats. In fact, 67 percent of respondents would be willing to be answer a question to make their ads more personalized and enjoyable.
- Consumers understand the exchange of free content for advertising, but they want to make sure their time tradeoff of watching ads also benefits them. They found coupons, contests and links as the most positive forms of engagement.