Creative quality and effective distribution are key to making video work on screens other than TV, writes Millward Brown’s Amanda Phillips.
Us Brits are a little bit in love with our telly. Flatscreen, giant widescreen or small kitchen screen, it doesn’t really matter; we just love our TV.
TV, live and on demand, not only gets 62% of total viewing in the UK, significantly ahead of the global average, but people are also more receptive to advertising on this platform, particularly during live TV.
As a nation, we’ve all grown up with TV, it’s part of our daily routines, we enjoy watching it individually and socially and the ad breaks are part and parcel of the format. In the UK, data from our global AdReaction Video study among multiscreen consumers finds that live TV advertising scores 27% compared to just 17% for advertising on tablets and laptops.
But it’s not just familiarity, other factors are also important. One reason might be the love and care that ad agencies put into TV creative. The attention to the story, the production values, the branding combined with a sophisticated understanding of the medium, all result in better content.
Digital, of course, lacks the same heritage of TV (and still for some brands and agencies the same prestige). Agencies and their clients need to consider digital early in the creative development process so that the content can be adapted and optimised for the relevant context.
Some clients now ask their agencies to play a new TV ad concept with the sound off, to assess if it can be adapted for video content.
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The issue around video content is that the objective of content is really about distribution, not creation – and that means that advertisers (and their agencies) need to work even harder to keep consumers engaged and prompt them to share, in order to deliver earned media.
Outside of live TV advertising, UK consumers can be much less receptive to advertising. To overcome this barrier, brands need to be sensitive in the way they deliver content in this space and respect the consumer.
Consumers are used to being in control of their digital activity and so giving them the option to skip digital ads, for example, is one way to dramatically boost receptivity. This applies across all devices, but particularly for smartphones, where small screens can make ads feel invasive.
While advertisers may not pay if the ad is skipped, the danger is that there is the potential to lose 50% in the first few seconds and so brands need to focus on capturing attention early.
Humour is the main weapon in skip prevention; it was the top reason shared by consumers in 30 of 42 countries involved in the AdReaction study.
With 32% of UK consumers saying it would make them less likely to skip and more likely to pay attention, compared to a global average of 37%, it’s the most powerful reason to keep consumers engaged.
Other popular reasons for making people less likely to skip are rewards such as coupons or points (28% in the UK), interest in the brand (29%) and interest in the category (26%).
Brands also need to take into account the location and consumer mindset where ads might be seen. Most video is viewed at home, but varying mind-sets when using different devices impact on receptivity – digital advertising needs to be adapted to reflect these nuances.
There is lower favourability to advertising where people are more focused and looking for something specific, compared to live TV. So while laptop use is more goal-orientated, smartphones are often used to overcome boredom while out and about.
UK consumers are more likely than consumers in the rest of the world to view smartphone video at school or college, while travelling or in a public outdoor space. In all these places UK consumers are at least as receptive, or even more receptive, to video ads as consumers in the rest of Europe and around the world.
Addressing creative and distribution challenges will help brands drive the effectiveness of video activity. As more and more advertising spend is diverted to content and video in particular, creative agencies will need to be capability- ready and research agencies measurement-ready to maximise the impact that video can deliver for brands across screens.
Amanda Phillips is head of marketing at Millward Brown UK.
