ABSTRACT
Six-second advertisements are a recent advertising format growing in popularity. Despite their growth, little insight exists on how to craft successful six-second advertisements. The format presents challenges to advertisers because of its brevity, which limits what can be shown and conveyed. The current study develops an understanding of how six-second advertisements can be made more effective by leveraging research in advertising and screen media as well as analyzing data drawn from an agency dataset, popular press articles, social media, and interviews. The authors detail several immediately actionable strategies that can be used to improve the effectiveness of six-second advertisements.
MANAGEMENT SLANT
In most cases, 15- or 30-second advertisements cannot communicate the same message in six seconds.
The brevity of six-second advertisements forces use of modified and experimental narrative structures that are relatively new to video advertising.
Six-second advertisements are more successful when filmed in a style that differs from that of typical video advertisements.
As six-second advertisements rely on audience knowledge to a greater extent than other advertisements, precise targeting is very important to their success.
Six-second advertisements are often more effective in combination with other advertisements, highlighting the need for more advanced cascaded targeting tools.
INTRODUCTION
Six-second advertisements are growing in popularity. Although they currently comprise 2.8–3.3 percent of all video advertisements, the format is estimated to grow in the future (Friedman, 2018; Weprin, 2018). This reflects a shift toward shorter advertisements, with average television commercial length on the decrease (Friedman, 2018). The shift likely is caused by increasing aversion to advertising, particularly in online environments where consumers are goal-directed and less open to distractions (Cho and Cheon, 2004; Li, Edwards, and Lee, 2002). This likely explains why younger consumers prefer six-second advertisements when on mobile devices (Bernard, 2018).
Despite the popularity of six-second advertisements, advice on how to craft them effectively is only just emerging (Fulgoni, 2018; Jones, 2017; Paasch, 2017). Existing advertising theory (MacInnis, Moorman, and Jaworski, 1991) suggests that six-second advertisements, in most cases, are less effective than longer counterparts, although exceptions likely also exist. Their brevity limits what can be shown and said, challenging advertiser attempts to acquire attention and impart meaning. Classical narratives, which depict a beginning, middle, and end to show cause and effect, typically require time to depict (Escalas, 1998; Stern, 1994) and may be difficult to convey in a short time frame. Just like advertisements designed to reduce skipping (Campbell, Thompson, Grimm, and Robson, 2017) or that function in a soundless environment (Campbell and Pearson, 2018), six-second advertisements likely necessitate special handling to maximize their effectiveness.
The current authors develop an understanding of how effective six-second advertisements can be crafted. Drawing on research from marketing and screen media, the current research clarifies the unique constraints that six seconds can pose for advertisers. Then, in a three-stage qualitative investigation drawing on multiple data sources, techniques are identified that advertisers can use to address the challenges in creating six-second advertisements. The authors discuss these techniques around stages of the advertisement creation process—planning, writing, production, and placement—and draw on interviews with advertising professionals to illuminate the findings. The current study finds that narratives depicted in longer video advertisements often cannot be adapted to the shorter time frame of six seconds. Instead, six-second advertisements often use more experimental narrative forms typically not used in advertising. Such narrative forms often require viewer interpretation and rely heavily on an audience's experiences and existing knowledge. This not only constrains advertisers but also, more importantly, suggests that precise targeting is more important for six-second advertisements. More successful six-second advertisements also make use of a more compressed film style that is atypical of most video advertisements. This paper identifies and describes immediately actionable techniques for creating more effective six-second advertisements. At a theoretical level, the findings suggest that six-second advertisements are catalyzing new forms of narrative structure in advertising.
The Brevity of Six-Second Advertisements Challenges Their Effectiveness
Although six-second advertisements are prone to be less avoided than their longer counterparts (Fleck, 2018; Fulgoni, 2018), their brevity likely reduces impact on those who watch them relative to longer advertisements. Although practitioners and academics are only beginning to confront the challenges posed by six-second advertisements (Fulgoni, 2018; Jones, 2017; Paasch, 2017; Wolf and Donato, 2019), existing research generally has found that longer advertisements perform better than shorter ones. Research in television (Newstead and Romaniuk, 2010; Patzer, 1991; Peters and Bijmolt, 1997; Singh and Cole, 1993; Singh, Rothschild, and Churchill, 1988; Wheatley, 1968), radio (Allan, 2007), and online (Danaher and Mullarkey, 2003; Goodrich, Schiller, and Galletta, 2015; Li and Lo, 2015; McCoy, Everard, Polak, and Galletta, 2008) contexts have found that longer advertisements tend to be better remembered. Research also has found that longer scenes in advertisements are better recalled (Rossiter, Silberstein, Harris, and Nield, 2001). An industry study of different video advertisement lengths found that 15-second advertisements are rated by consumers as twice as effective as six-second advertisements (Rothwell, 2018). Although research has yet to address recall of six-second advertisements, existing research offers valuable insight into how their brevity is likely to impact consumers.
Shorter viewing time decreases a consumer's opportunity to view an advertisement as well as process its message (MacInnis et al., 1991; Meyers-Levy and Malaviya, 1999). Repetition is also limited, inhibiting learning. Six-second advertisements provide less time for consumers to notice, attend to, and digest an advertisement's message. This reduced consumer processing likely hampers the ability of the advertisement to persuade; furthermore, six-second advertisements can convey a limited amount of visual and auditory information (MacInnis et al., 1991). This hinders the argument, demonstration, exposition, and explanation that can occur in support of a persuasive argument. In particular, their brevity likely challenges the depiction of narratives, a popular and effective appeal in advertising (Deighton, Romer, and McQueen, 1989; Escalas, 1998, 2004a, 2004b, 2006; Green and Brock, 2000; Kim, Ratneshwar, and Thorson, 2017; Van Laer, de Ruyter, Visconti, and Wetzels, 2013).
The brevity of six-second advertisements challenges the depiction of narratives by making extensive use of dialogue and multiple shots infeasible. These limitations make character development difficult and interfere with the depiction of chronology and causality—the building blocks of plot (Escalas, 1998; Stern, 1994). Classic narrative structures, which consist of a beginning, middle, and end, rely on audiences being able to understand a temporal order. In videos following such classic structures, time is constructed through editing and film style, both of which lay down clear, linear tracks for the viewer to follow (Martin, 2014). Dialogue, editing, acting, and visual style work together to intensify the relatedness between images and create the effect of a smooth, unruptured flow (Bordwell, 1979, 1985; Rabiger, 1997). Ironically, techniques to impart the flow of time—along with the sensory immersion that they help to engender—all require screen time (Mroz, 2012). An inability to convey causality or a narrative is likely to severely limit the effectiveness of six-second advertisements relative to longer counterparts.
Potential Means of Overcoming the Constraints Posed by Six Seconds
Academic research on advertising effectiveness tends to focus on factors that generally affect advertisement performance rather than factors that enable an advertisement to be shortened. Research has found, for instance, that highway billboards that are more creative, colorful, and prominently placed receive greater attention (Wilson, Baack, and Till, 2015; Wilson and Casper, 2016) and that use of less text and information eases comprehension (Van Meurs and Aristoff, 2009). In a television context, messages that reinforce branding and focus on the advertised product are more effective (Bellman, Nenycz-Thiel, Kennedy, Hartnett, et al., 2019; Stewart and Furse, 1986; Stewart and Koslow, 1989). How a television advertisement is shown, such as the program (Kamins, Marks, and Skinner, 1991) or pod of advertisements (Peters and Bijmolt, 1997) that an advertisement appears within also affect performance. Similar effects are found online, where advertisement position, econtext congruity, and use of images rather than text (Goodrich, 2010, 2011; Li and Lo, 2015) affect advertisement performance.
As discussed in the preceding section, a large body of research has examined the effect of advertisement length on advertisement performance, but limited studies have explored factors that enable shorter advertisements to be more effective. Research found that, in some cases, informational 15-second advertisements perform as well as 30-second advertisements. The current authors hypothesize that this effect occurs because informational advertisements tend to be disliked and trigger viewer reactance (Singh and Cole, 1993). A study comparing the effectiveness of six-second advertisements to that of 15- and 30-second advertisements suggests that six-second advertisements receive more visual attention when paired with longer advertisements during the same program and are run either solo or as the first advertisement in a commercial pod (Wolf and Donato, 2019).
Although academic research is only beginning to explore strategies to address the constraints of six-second advertisements (Wolf and Donato, 2019), practitioners are reporting insights from the format. Six-second advertisements perform better when reinforcing a message previously communicated by longer advertisements (Rothwell, 2018). This suggests the need to keep six-second advertisements simple, echoing industry advice that six-second advertisements should act more like headlines, jokes, or banner advertisements (Jones, 2017; Paasch, 2017; Petrova, 2017; Singh, 2018). Other practitioners advocate that it is possible to tell a full narrative in six seconds (Singh, 2018) but that the format naturally forces reliance on visuals (Paasch, 2017). Research has yet to address explicitly techniques for communicating through time-compressed video, but academic research in advertising and film does suggest possible strategies to maximize the impact of shorter content.
Although not explicitly addressing six-second advertisements, academic research suggests that existing brands may see more success with shorter forms. Familiar brands are not only more recognizable but also more likely to trigger more associations (Keller, 1993; Kent and Allen, 1994) that might be leveraged to create advertisements conveying more information. Knowing that these associations readily spring to consumers' minds potentially provides advertisers with a ready-made “toolbox” that can be leveraged to create advertisements that convey more complex information. Unknown brands may not have the luxury of specific brand associations to draw upon, but they can still leverage inferences from the general culture (Hall, 1997) or anything a particular audience can be presumed to know (Berthon, Pitt, and Campbell, 2009; Campbell and Pearson, 2018), such as popular films, memes, or locations. Because meaning from communication is constructed by the receiver (Berthon et al., 2009; Escalas, 1998; Stern, 1994), knowledge that a viewer will interpret a communication within the context of a particular frame might enable more efficient or loaded advertising to occur (Campbell and Pearson, 2018).
Film research suggests that there are multiple ways to tell a story beyond classical structure. Temporal compression may prompt the use of nonclassical narrative structures, as six-second advertisements restrict depiction of time in film. This might result in six-second advertisements that are similar to open-ended narratives in art and experimental cinemas (Bordwell, 1979; Mroz, 2012). Even though six-second advertisements are unlikely to risk reaching the extremes of ambiguity found in more avant-garde film, they may demand more viewer sensemaking than classical narratives (Escalas, 1998; Lagerwerf and Meijers, 2008).
METHODOLOGY
Consistent with an exploratory investigation (Creswell, 2013; Glaser and Strauss, 1967), as well as similar research on video advertising (Campbell and Pearson, 2018), this study adopts a multistage qualitative approach to build understanding in this area. To enhance the validity of this study, five different data sources capturing both consumer response and practitioner insights were analyzed in the following order: advertisements from an agency dataset, nonephemeral social media, ephemeral social media, and articles and from interviews with advertising industry professionals.
Advertisements from an Agency Dataset
To provide insight into real consumer response to six-second advertisements, Unruly Media, a global online video advertisement distributor, provided access to advertisements distributed worldwide in 2017 and 2018. The advertisements covered a wide variety of brands and product categories, with the most prevalent categories (and number of advertisements) being: grocery stores (114), automotive brands and products (64), consumer packaged food (54), toiletries and cosmetics (37), travel-related brands and products (34), computers and electronics (31), movies and television (29), apparel (21), gambling and lottery (19), periodicals (14), and alcohol (8). Because six-second advertisements are still relatively new, a cutoff of 10 seconds was used to identify 569 English-language video advertisements (average length = 7.96 seconds). Advertisements were ranked on the basis of the percentage of time each advertisement was visible to consumers (in-view time divided by advertisement length). This was based on the assumption that more successful advertisements would be visible for a longer duration, because consumers would be watching them rather than scrolling past or clicking away from them (Campbell and Pearson, 2018). The 50 highest (average percentage viewed, 97 percent) and 50 lowest (average percentage viewed, 14 percent) advertisements in terms of percentage of the advertisement that was viewed were selected for qualitative coding.
Advertisements from Nonephemeral Social Media
Providing further insight into actual consumer response, a research assistant located 458 Facebook and 457 YouTube pages corresponding to those from a list of the 500 most valuable U.S. brands (Haigh, 2017). These pages were scraped for video advertisements less than 10 seconds. A total of 1,444 videos from Facebook and 759 videos from YouTube were identified. Because view metrics are not publicly available, videos were ranked based on user engagement rate (likes, reactions, and comments). This ranking was conducted on the basis of the assumption that more effective advertisements more likely would be viewed and, thus, more likely would receive engagement from consumers (Burton, Mueller, Gollins, and Walls, 2019; Taylor, Lewin, and Strutton, 2011). The 50 advertisements with the highest engagement rates and the 50 advertisements with the lowest engagement rates on each medium were selected for qualitative coding.
Advertisements from Ephemeral Social Media
Because software is not yet available to automatically scrape Snapchat or Instagram, two research assistants recorded a total of 409 advertisements over a seven-day period, yielding 152 advertisements from Instagram stories and 257 advertisements from Snapchat. There was no overlap between the two sources. Because no metrics were available to sort these advertisements, all of these advertisements were qualitatively analyzed.
Advertisements from Articles
Six-second advertisements identified in popular press articles as successful examples of the new advertisement format were also collected. A total of 66 advertisements were identified (See Table 1).
Interviews with Advertising Industry Professionals
As consumer response was already captured in the first two data sources, interviews were conducted with 10 advertising professionals with six-second advertising experience (See Appendix 1 for an interview guide). Because of their knowledge, experience, and training, these professionals were thought to be able to better articulate techniques and strategies used in advertising. The advertising professionals reflected a wide range of roles, including directors, planners, and producers from firms of different sizes (See Table 2).
The analysis was strengthened not only by the triangulation afforded by using multiple data sources but also by the fact that the current authors independently coded all data before comparing and reconciling any differences through discussion (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Strauss and Corbin, 1998). If their codes of an advertisement differed, they reviewed the advertisement and coding definitions again together before sharing a detailed rationale for coding. This process typically led to a common perspective emerging or, in rare cases, a more complex set of codes being adopted. The fact that each author comes from a different background—one researcher is in marketing, and the other is in screen media—also helped to foster distinct perspectives (Creswell, 2013). Emerging themes and findings were continually compared with existing literature to both extend and strengthen results (Spiggle, 1994). Analysis comprised three stages (See Figure 1).
The first stage of analysis was conducted on the advertisements from an agency dataset and advertisements from nonephemeral social media. These two datasets were analyzed first, because they included performance metrics that enabled the 50 highest and 50 lowest performing advertisements to be identified in each set. Each researcher first viewed and open coded each advertisement individually, and having both the best and lowest performing advertisements was also valuable for the axial coding that took place next. Axial coding involved each researcher independently comparing within and between the more and less successful groups of advertisements. This enabled identification of patterns and themes common to each set of advertisements. All 200 advertisements then were reviewed again to selectively code for these emergent ideas. This first stage of analysis, during which existing literature was consulted throughout (Spiggle, 1994), culminated in the creation of a preliminary set of strategies used in successful six-second advertisements.
In the second stage, advertisements from ephemeral social media and successful advertisements from articles were analyzed in light of the findings from the first stage. This second analysis followed a process similar to that of the first stage, with each researcher first independently open coding each advertisement for new characteristics as well as selectively coding for characteristics identified in the first stage. These findings were then compared across advertisements to refine emergent themes and findings. Each researcher then reviewed and recoded the advertisements. Insights were used to further refine and extend the strategies identified in the first stage.
In the third and final stage, 10 advertising professionals with experience with six-second advertisements were interviewed (See Table 2). The interviews enabled the list of strategies developed in the first two stages of analysis to be explored, extended, and critically examined. Interviews also provided valuable insight into why specific techniques and strategies were likely used in six-second advertisements as well as how the techniques operate. Interviews loosely followed an interview guide developed based on insights from earlier analyses (See Appendix 1). Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Following a process similar to that of earlier analyses, each researcher independently coded each interview on its own before looking across interviews to synthesize commonalities and identify emergent insights. This included the identification of additional strategies and characteristics, broadening of those already identified in earlier analysis, and development of deeper understanding of how each operates. Coding of the interviews was then updated in light of these insights, and theoretical saturation was confirmed. Insights were then refined and arranged into a list of strategies and characteristics (See Table 3). These findings are discussed next, with reference to example advertisements and quotations from interviews used to add insight and depth.
RESULTS
Strategies Used by More Effective Six-Second Advertisements
An overarching finding from the interviews with advertising professionals was how constraining the six-second format is for creating advertisements. There is an upper limit to how many shots can be used without disorienting viewers. Daniel explains that this is because “you need to give people a moment to register unless the effect you're going for is to overwhelm.” Six-second advertisements also are constrained in terms of dialogue. Teo explains that, unlike visuals, which are processed quickly, “understanding dialogue takes time” and that anything “longer than six lines isn't going to be delivered in six seconds.” This creates tremendous challenges that Oliver describes as “trying to tell a story with one word instead of one paragraph,” and Daniel likens to making “a vignette, a haiku.” Given these challenges, the authors describe strategies that are present in more successful six-second advertisements and arrange them in terms of the advertisement development process: planning, writing, production, and placement (See Table 3). Given the actionable nature of the findings, it is important to note that they also can be considered from the perspective of managerial implications.
Planning: Matching Objectives to the Six-Second Format. One technique involves fitting appropriate objectives to the constrained format of six-second advertisements. More successful advertisements tend to target goals early or late in the consumer decision-making journey such as awareness, initial consideration, or repurchase. Jim explains that, because of the brevity of six seconds, “you're looking for awareness rather than any specific message because it's rare that you can get much of a message across that quickly.” A Dunkin' Donuts advertisement (drawn from the nonephemeral social media scraped data) exemplifies the simple goals achievable in six seconds. The advertisement uses a single, left-to-right panning camera shot that foregrounds a hand holding an iced coffee against the backdrop of a city street. Cartoon suns, clouds, and hearts help illustrate the simple joy of an iced coffee on a summer day. This example coincides with Jacob's view that six-second advertisements are ideal as “a kind of a reminder mechanism” useful for “making points such as reaffirming key USPs [unique selling propositions] of a particular product or service” or “making a specific point.”
Planning: Use of Episodic Storytelling. Another technique involves telling more complex stories through a series of “atomized” six-second advertisements that together constitute a larger message. One approach to doing this is through creating a series of interconnected but unsequenced six-second advertisements, each offering a window into a larger “world.” As this approach does not rely on sequential viewing, it is appropriate when only general targeting is available. Paolo explains that such campaigns force viewers “to think on their own and put things together.” Airbnb's “Live There” campaign (drawn from nonephemeral social media scraped data) exemplifies this by using a series of six-second advertisements to depict a larger experience. One advertisement depicts a family making pizza dough together. In another, the same family plays in a pool. Taken separately, these advertisements highlight the different benefits of using Airbnb for a family holiday; together, they help to bring to life the wider experience of a family vacation.
Another approach breaks a larger story down into “six-second chunks” that are, as Jacob says, “sequentially targeted so people who see them are driven down the funnel.” This relies on developing a larger story that can be told in smaller pieces, which, as Jacob explains, requires preparation: “We plan upfront … for all of the many different types of atomized sets of content that we do: 15-second spots, six seconds, GIFs, cinemagraphs, carousels, you name it.” Lucas describes how such content can be used to form a larger customer journey, explaining that “you might kick off with a handful of six-second videos, targeted and retargeted to the same people to build brand affinity, before then distributing a longer form piece of content to them.” Knowledge of what customers have and will see as part of this larger content arc allows six-second advertisements to be very focused and deliberate in the message that each one communicates.
Writing: Use of Simplified Messages, Narratives, and Nonclassical Narratives. More successful six-second advertisements use simpler narratives or, in some cases, what might be considered no narrative at all. This is driven by the brevity of the format; as Asher explains, “There's only certain kinds of stories that you can tell in six seconds.” Daniel states that, although “you can usually find a 10 [-second advertisement] in your 30 [-second advertisement] that can make sense and be relatively enjoyable to watch, it's very difficult to take six seconds out. You have to write toward the six second[s].” Daniel's quote illustrates how six-second advertisements are distinctly written, requiring a simpler narrative than those found in longer advertisements. This difference was evident in the data, with more successful six-second advertisements using tight, simplistic storylines. An advertisement for a large supermarket (drawn from the agency dataset) illustrates this simplicity, using highly aestheticized and carefully curated shots to foreground the beauty of the oranges, lemons, and glazing that go into their hot cross buns. Finished with a swipe of butter on toasted buns, the narrative simply speaks to the care and fresh ingredients that go into their product.
Teo describes how such simple narratives are driven by the constraints posed by six seconds: “You don't have a lot of time to set things up. You have to go into it and know exactly what's going on, where you are, who the character is, and what they're about to do.” Simple narratives are not only easier to produce but also easier for the viewer to comprehend. Daniel explains, “With a traditional 15[-second advertisement], you can get a lot of information in, but if you try to put the same amount of information in a six[-second advertisement], it can feel almost absurd.” Elaborating further, he states, “You want to simplify everything. You want it to make as much sense as possible because somebody only has three seconds essentially to make sense of what you're showing them.”
The authors also observed cases of what can be termed “fractured” narratives, where part of a narrative is consciously omitted. Piper explains, “There are certain narrative structures that are culturally dependent that we're accustomed to” and that by taking “advantage of the ways that people are already programmed to see things,” creators can “assume they don't have to be shown everything.” By knowing what viewers likely will naturally expect— and, hence, infer—writers can “stretch” time and communicate much more than six seconds might otherwise allow. A Ralph Lauren advertisement, for example (drawn from the nonephemeral scraped data), omits the end of its love story, because the outcome is inferable. The authors discuss this nonclassical narrative further in the Stencil Directing section that follows.
The open narrative, in which a story is consciously constructed to have different meanings for different viewers (Escalas, 1998), is another nonclassical narrative evident in the data. The Marc Jacobs “Spring 2017” advertisement (drawn from the nonephemeral scraped data) illustrates a simple open narrative. The advertisement focuses on one celebrity, Frances Bean Cobain (the daughter of musicians Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love), dawdling along a city street. The audience is not privy to where she has come from, what she is doing, or where she is going; the motivations of both the character, and of any overarching story, are unclear. The absence of classical structure leaves the advertisement open to inference, with the most likely readings focused on the seemingly effortless “cool” displayed by Cobain in Marc Jacobs brand shoes.
Writing: Drawing on Brand History and Campaigns. More successful six-second advertisements draw heavily on consumer knowledge of a brand to tell their stories. This includes featuring known characters, referencing previous advertising campaigns, or alluding to or mentioning brand information that viewers can be assumed to know. Although the authors recognize that advertisements generally benefit from such allusions, in the context of six-second advertisements, they become vital tools for rapid meaning creation. Piper explains that “the more material you have to work with as a visual or verbal lexicon, then the less you have to give”; by “give,” Piper means create or build within an advertisement. Although reference to brand associations and history likely reinforce the advertised brand and drive recall, with six-second advertisements, it is important that such references also act as a shorthand for communicating more complex ideas to viewers. Piper explains that creating a six-second advertisement for a known brand “arguably could be much easier because the back-story is filled in … . You have so many assumed narratives that are attached to [a brand].” Jim explains that this makes developing six-second advertisements more challenging for newer brands, because “you have to build that narrative in people's heads, you have to kind of create your story, and … it's impossible to do that in six seconds.”
Although existing brands enjoy an advantage, Piper explains that advertisers running several advertisements contemporaneously also can benefit from referencing the larger “world” that such campaigns build. She explains that “the more kind of shorts that you build out around the campaign, the easier it is to do a six-second [advertisement] because you already have an inkling of why it exists or what kind of world it belongs to.”
Xbox's “Know Your Enemy” campaign for the release of Halo Wars 2 (drawn from the ephemeral social media data) includes the use of six-second advertisements that feature game characters in comedic situations. Given viewer familiarity with the game and its characters, these advertisements did not need to focus on long or developing storylines; one advertisement, for instance, simply features the character General Atroix stuck sitting beside his enemy, Captain Cutter, on a plane. For Xbox, the advertisements were designed to “re-engage viewers of the ‘long form’ commercial and build off its story with additional content” (Petrova, 2017). Oliver explains this strategy by stating that “with a [single] six-second ad, it's very hard to introduce something new because of the time constraint. Six-second advertisements are often more effective when they can draw on a wider campaign.”
Writing: Harness the Sociocultural Context. Although advertisements in general can benefit from leveraging the wider sociocultural context to facilitate communication, this tactic is especially important for six-second advertisements. It is a particularly important tool for unfamiliar brands that do not have richly developed brand histories. More successful six-second advertisements make educated guesses about what audiences are likely to find familiar. Cues and prompts are then used to tell more complex and detailed messages. Michael elaborates: “Imagine looking at a close-up shot of a woman smiling at a bouquet of flowers and she has a white veil on. You know that she's getting married, and this is her perfect day. She's not really a character, she's a cipher.” By “cipher,” Michael means the woman and her outfit and flower prop are shorthand communicative symbols of the broader idea of a wedding. Teo explains that sociocultural inferences are vital, stating that “You don't have time to tell the audience who this person is. Using [known characters] gets 90 percent of the work out of the way on exposition. So mascots, celebrities, stereotypes, caricatures—those are all tools to tell the story in a much faster way.”
In an advertisement for Road Lodge, the use of stereotype allows for an immediate recognition of the punchline (See Table 1, sixth article). In the first scene, the advertisement reads, “Bad for room wrecking rockers,” with a cliché rock star character attempting to pull a television off a hotel wall. Costuming—leather trousers, ponytail, sunglasses, and a fur coat—makes this stereotype immediately recognizable within the first second of the advertisement. Likewise, celebrity is known to offer a shorthand to conveying particular meanings (McCracken, 1989). In a Marc Jacobs advertisement, Frances Bean Cobain brings association with grunge aesthetics and “cool,” enriching advertisement impact.
Production: Stencil Directing. Six-second advertisements can leverage use of a filmic structure that alludes to a larger narrative than what is depicted. Rather than explicitly showing scenes fully conveying the story, the data reveal that six-second advertisements rely on omission, reference, and allusion. Teo explains, for instance, how abrupt editing can be used “to show the passage of time, or to show the story is moving forward,” because “a single shot, or a moving camera that doesn't cut, is really constraining.” Other signaling techniques include close framing, sounds that point toward out-of-frame actions or events, or gestures that direct viewer attention offscreen. Teo offers the following example: “If you're looking at one character but they're talking off screen in multiple directions, [viewers] may assume … that there's multiple people in the room.” Piper provides another example, saying viewers “can infer so much … you can have someone on a podium and immediately [viewers] imagine the crowd.” The Ralph Lauren advertisement discussed earlier offers a four-shot snippet of a “boy-meets-girl” narrative, where a man spots a woman wearing the same t-shirt. The viewer is left to infer that the man and woman meet because of their shared fashion taste, which is a narrative entirely surmised rather than made explicit.
The techniques detailed represent an extension of what already naturally occurs with filmmaking. Although films generally are edited to appear fluid, in reality, editing removes an enormous amount of material that viewers are assumed to infer. Piper explains that “our brains are not really held back by time. You can fit a thousand years into six seconds, or you can fit just a single moment”; six-second advertisements suggest a further intensification of the existing film dynamics of omission and inclusion (Bordwell, 1985). In a Hershey's “S'mores” advertisement (drawn from the nonephemeral scraped data), all nonessential shots are cut out. What is left behind is a series of jerking and broken shots, enabling the viewer to infer the basic steps required.
Production: Stylistic Congruity. Six-second advertisements highlight the importance of stylistic congruity between shots and across advertisements within a particular campaign. Teo points out how “using different locations sucks time away from whatever story is going on, since you can't really move someone from point A to point B without orienting them.” By “orienting,” Teo means that viewers take one or two seconds seconds to acclimatize to each new setting. This means that using diverse locations comes at the expense of time that could be devoted to other elements that “could do service to your brand or idea”; as Asher states, this means that “you probably want to stay in one world rather than jumping between different worlds.” Consciously maintaining a consistent sense of setting between shots therefore is essential for six-second advertisements. Levi's “Ladies in Levi's” advertisement (drawn from the nonephemeral scraped data) features six different locations, but other scene elements offer an anchor point between the shots. This is accomplished by the use of similar looking models who occupy the same position in the frame across shots. The model thus provides a point of coherence.
Stylistic congruity is also valuable across a campaign. Oliver explains, “You want to rely on one aesthetic” when advertisements are short, so that “viewers can associate advertisements across channels.” For Daniel, it is crucial for a six-second advertisement to “be part of a greater whole. You don't want it to feel completely separate from the rest of your campaign.” Similarities in locations, set design, costume, characters, and lighting can create continuity, despite the necessary omissions of six-second advertisements. This helps viewers recognize advertisements from the same campaign, enabling processing resources to be devoted to understanding the message of an advertisement rather than surface features. Target's campaign for the release of Mario Odyssey (drawn from the nonephemeral scraped data) demonstrates how location can offer a sense of coherence between advertisements. Although the advertisements depict Mario in different situations, the same actors, characters, and locations are used. This creates an immediately recognizable space, or narrative world.
Production: Intensified Screen Exposition. The brevity of six-second advertisements can place more demand on the image to render meaning than in longer advertisements. Oliver explains that, because the advertisement is constrained to fewer shots, “you have to think much more carefully about shot composition … where you're shooting, who's going to be in the scene, what the shot is going to look like.” The goal is to communicate as much meaning as possible within the available frames, utilizing all available screen real estate. Piper explains that this involves not only “staging an environment that gives as many cues as possible” but also being “highly communicative in very little space.” Dollar General's “Desk Organization” advertisement (drawn from the nonephemeral scraped data) illustrates using the vast majority of the frame for product placement. A single midshot depicts a messy desk, which is then miraculously tidied using Dollar General products. All of the frame is used to display a range of desk-organizing products. This also can be accomplished through deep-focus shots that allow several layers of the image to be in focus simultaneously, intensifying communicated meaning (Bazin, 1967). Daniel explains that this is a unique approach, as “traditionally there's one focus plane … but with six seconds, you want both the spokesperson and the background in focus, which is not something you usually do.”
Placement: Use of Precise Targeting. Because the ability to communicate more complex messages is dependent on knowing your audience, the success of six-second advertisements also is driven by targeting. A six-second advertisement written and produced for consumers who are aware of a particular brand or cultural reference may have no meaning if it is shown to an uninformed audience. Inferences about an audience can be extrapolated on the basis of what viewers have seen. Jacob explains that this can be operationalized by “building custom audiences of people,” leveraging relevant targeting options. Knowledge of the targeting options available when an advertisement is run should inform an advertisement's planning, writing, and production. If targeting needs to be broad, for whatever reason, this information is also important to know so that simplified and more general six-second advertisements can be produced.
Placement: Use of Cascaded Targeting. A form of targeting particularly important to six-second advertisements is what can be termed “cascaded targeting.” This refers to the practice of creating target audiences of consumers known to have viewed a particular advertisement. This can be used to ensure that only viewers who are likely interested in—and likely to understand—a more advanced advertisement are exposed to it. Lucas explains how “you might kick off with a handful of six-second advertisements targeted and retargeted to the same people, building brand affinity before then distributing them a longer form piece of content.” Lucas explains further that “it's really key to put advertisements in the right order,” meaning that the six-second advertisements serve to prime consumers for the larger investment of watching a longer video advertisement. Although emerging research on six-second advertisements (Wolf and Donato, 2019) supports the statement by Lucas, research on priming suggests that such an effect may require multiple exposures for this to occur with unfamiliar brands (Anderson, Bothell, Lebiere, and Matessa, 1998).
DISCUSSION
The current findings on six-second advertisements contribute by demonstrating an evolution in the messages and narratives typically used in advertising toward forms involving greater cocreation of meaning. Their brevity means that all messages—but especially those stories told in longer spots—are difficult to depict in six seconds. Although narratives typically require exposition to introduce the reader into the narrative world (Bordwell, 1985), this often is not possible. In terms of theory, the findings demonstrate how larger fictional traditions can be uniquely adapted to maximize meaning in the context of six-second advertisements.
The authors also contribute to the wider literature on narratives in advertising by revealing how video duration affects narrative structure. Although the meaning of all stories is cocreated (Escalas, 1998; Stern, 1994), the findings suggest that short-form video requires increased use of simpler messages or narrative forms that place more emphasis on the viewer's meaning-making processes. One is the use of more experimental methods, such as open narratives (Escalas, 1998; Lagerwerf and Meijers, 2008), which are relatively ambiguous, leaving viewers to arrange elements. Open narratives contrast with classical cinema, which often is characterized by clear chains of cause and effect (Bordwell, 1979). The approach is similar to that found in some art cinema and independent film narratives, which are marked by “their lack of a strong, forward-moving narrative drive, opting instead for more relaxed or decentered structures” (King, 2005, p. 59). Although open narratives are relatively rare because advertisers often desire more control over their communicated message (Phillips and McQuarrie, 2010), six-second advertisements suggest a renewed focus on them as well as a shift toward marketers shepherding rather than directing meaning.
The current findings further contribute by identifying a previously underutilized type of narrative well suited to the brevity of six seconds. In what can be termed “fractured” narratives, only a portion of an intended overall story is conveyed. Viewers then are relied upon to fill in the blanks of what they see. The identification of this narrative approach opens the door to exploration of other similar techniques, extending narrative theory in advertising. Although it is not evident in the data, it is likely that other forms of complex and nonclassical narrative structures (Simons, 2008) also may be useful in constructing six-second advertisements. Polyphonic plots, for instance, involve multiple protagonists in a single location, with separate narrative strands that may or may not interact (Ramirez Berg, 2006). The Airbnb advertisements discussed earlier are a loose example of such structures adapted for the six-second form.
The current findings also point to greater need to leverage a viewer's knowledge and history to create more effective advertisements. Echoing research on advertisements shown without sound (Campbell and Pearson, 2018), the value of understanding viewers also is evident in a creator drawing on symbols and ciphers that viewers likely will recognize as quickly communicating rich meaning. At a theoretical level, these findings suggest renewed relevance of fundamental concepts in communication such as mutual meaning (Berthon et al., 2009).
The current insights also deepen existing research on how consumers respond to advertisements (MacInnis et al., 1991) by illustrating which characteristics of advertisements operate better with shorter video advertisements. Six-second advertisements, for instance, cause some strategies to become more important (e.g., tactics to reduce processing time, careful use of edits and cuts), whereas others are less important (e.g., enhancing advertisement complexity) or even impossible (e.g., including redundant information, using a large number of scenes). The strategies of leveraging consumer knowledge and using nonclassical narrative structures provide new mechanisms through which processing and ability to process can be enhanced. Taken together, the findings develop insights that increasingly are relevant as advertisers shift toward ever briefer advertisement exposures.
Managerial Implications
The findings offer several insights for advertising practitioners. Most important, attention should be drawn to the results of the investigation that explicate immediately actionable strategies relevant to all phases involved in launching a six-second advertising campaign. (See Table 3 for details on all these strategies.) It is valuable to note that, aside from references to brand history, these strategies can be used by established and new brands alike. First, analysis reveals that six-second advertisements necessitate a unique approach, with altered focus at each stage of advertisement creation. Second, it becomes more important to know your consumer when planning and writing six-second advertisements. Understanding your audience enables their experience and knowledge to be leveraged to impart greater meaning. Third, because narratives typically depicted in longer spots are challenging to condense, planning can ensure that longer advertisements are constructed in ways that enable them to be cut down. Fourth, specific filmmaking and editing techniques can ease viewer comprehension and maximize communicated meaning. Finally, the results highlight the value of precise targeting and the potential for software solutions that make serialized targeting easier to operationalize.
The current findings also suggest changes in how six-second advertisements are created. Although advertisements typically are developed in a relatively linear fashion, six-second advertisements likely benefit from a more integrated production process. Understanding available targeting options, for instance, enables the ideation of advertisements better suited to a particular audience's knowledge base. Likewise, knowledge of the challenges involved in editing six-second advertisements likely will impact how they are filmed.
Beyond advertisement development and distribution, the findings raise broader considerations for advertising professionals. Six-second advertisements reaffirm the importance of integrated marketing communications across channels and campaigns. Because the brevity of six-second advertisements already challenges viewer recognition of a brand, product, or campaign, stylistic consistency is likely even more important. This may be a double-edged sword, however, potentially making it more difficult for brands to evolve their identities. Ironically, increased use of open and experimental narratives may present risk for advertisers by creating the potential for multiple—and, in some cases, unanticipated—meanings. Similarly, there is more risk of advertisements being misunderstood (or not understood at all) if their meaning is dependent on targeting. Finally, marketers should explore whether the brevity of six-second advertisements may affect wearin and wearout, enabling greater frequency.
Limitations and Future Research
Although the qualitative approach used is well suited to building and mapping the initial understanding of a phenomenon, it is only a first step toward better understanding consumer response to six-second advertisements. Future experimental research in this area would be valuable on several fronts. Experiments could help in isolating and ranking the effect of identified techniques (See Table 3). Experiments also could investigate the underlying mechanisms driving their effectiveness as well as explore moderators, mediators, and boundary conditions.
Research could explore situations in which six-second advertisements might perform better than longer versions, possibly with younger consumers. Although generally, shorter advertisements likely are less effective than longer advertisements, given their constrained ability to persuade, the authors recognize that this is only true in situations where a consumer watches the entirety of a longer advertisement. Consumers may be more tolerant of six-second advertisements in some contexts, thus making them more effective. Future research could explore the tradeoff between variables such as advertisement length and viewership drop-off. The authors also recognize that the viewing metric used in ranking the advertisements from an agency may be biased toward advertisements with a higher number of cuts (Lang, Kurita, Gao, and Rubenking, 2013) and encourage future research to address this limitation.
The compressed nature of six-second advertisements, in some cases, demands more processing effort by viewers than longer, more explicated advertisements. As discussed in the findings, increased use of allusions and references require retrieval and understanding by viewers. Likewise, more experimental and fractured narrative structures offload more of the meaning creation to the viewer. Such effort can be assumed when consumers find an advertisement intriguing or are involved in a product, but it may cause an advertisement to be misunderstood or avoided if a consumer does not have the motivation or ability to process an advertisement. Such outcomes may become more likely, as six-second advertisements become prevalent. This interplay between processing effort, comprehension, and advertising avoidance can be explored in future research.
Finally, the authors recognize that six-second advertisements are not an isolated advertising format. They often play as pre-roll advertisements or in soundless environments. The authors encourage researchers to integrate the findings here on six-second advertisements with existing research on advertising contexts such as pre-roll (Campbell et al., 2017), in-stream (Li and Lo, 2015), and soundless (Campbell and Pearson, 2018) environments.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Colin Campbell is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of San Diego. He researches online video advertising, influencer and native advertising, and deal collectives. Campbell has published in the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, and Journal of Advertising.
Erin Pearson is a doctoral candidate in film studies at the University of East Anglia. Her work examines the marketing discourses and promotional practices surrounding American independent cinema. Pearson has contributed chapters and essays for Intellect Book's “World Film Locations” and “Directory of World Cinema” book series and is the reviews editor for Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media.
Appendix Interview Guide
How long have you been working with six-second video advertisements? (if no, ineligible for the study)
How have you been involved in creating six-second videos?
Tell me more about the six-second advertisements you have worked on previously.
How do you think the length of these advertisements affects consumers?
What strategies do you use to make more effective six-second advertisements? (Ask this open-ended question first, and only prompt the topics below if participants have not already brought them up):
Narrative – the types/nature of broader stories that can be told
Plot – how stories are actually depicted in an advertisement
Linearity – open versus closed
Role of consumer inference
Characters
Stereotypes
Setting
Editing
Congruity
Anchor points
Shot types, visual planes
Dialogue
Positioning of logos
Text, color
Sound effects, music
Animation
Relationship to larger campaign, other advertisements
Is the process of creating a six-second advertisement different from that for 15 or 30 seconds? If so, how? (Ask this open-ended question first, and only prompt the topics below if participants have not already brought them up):
Planning/preproduction
Any changes in personnel/new expertise
During production
Editing
Postproduction
Are certain product categories or advertiser goals more conducive or less conducive to advertisements of this length?
Do you have any standout examples of six-second advertisements? Can you explain what you believe made them successful?
Is there anything else that you think would be relevant to know about how consumers respond to six-second advertisements or how you craft them?
Demographic questions (age, gender, education, title, size of company).
- Received April 22, 2019.
- Received (in revised form) January 21, 2020.
- Accepted February 13, 2020.
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