To acknowledge the fact that many consumers simply want to skip past advertisements to get to the video content they actually want to see, many brands are launching very short, yet riveting pre-roll ads. Barclays recently launched its own take on the idea with what it calls a 'Self-Skippable Pre-Roll Ad.'
The 20-second pre-roll advertisement begins by introducing that it will skip itself, and immediately, a series of actions begin on a Rube Goldberg machine. While the skip button on YouTube is shown throughout, viewers will likely be captured by the action, right up until the end, where a hammer smashes though the button.
Other brands that have released similar "unskippable" pre-roll ads include A&W, Scotts, Eat and Mountain Dew, all of which target Internet users with short attention spans.
Self-Destructing Pre-Roll Ads
Barclays' 'Self-Skippable Pre-Roll Ad' Gets Itself Out of the Way
Trend Themes
1. Short Pre-roll Ads - Brands are launching very short, yet riveting pre-roll ads to cater to consumers who want to skip past advertisements.
2. Self-skippable Ads - Barclays' 'Self-Skippable Pre-Roll Ad' introduces a new concept where the ad itself acknowledges the desire to skip and engages viewers with a Rube Goldberg machine.
3. Unskippable Ads - Brands like A&W, Scotts, Eat, and Mountain Dew have also released 'unskippable' pre-roll ads to capture the attention of internet users with short attention spans.
Industry Implications
1. Technology - The trend of short pre-roll ads presents disruptive innovation opportunities for technology companies to develop more engaging and attention-grabbing ad formats.
2. Advertising - The concept of self-skippable and unskippable pre-roll ads opens up disruptive innovation opportunities for the advertising industry to explore new ways of capturing and retaining viewer attention.
3. Digital Marketing - Short, self-skippable, and unskippable pre-roll ads create disruptive innovation opportunities for digital marketing professionals to optimize ad content and improve user engagement strategies.