Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/957795
18 DGA QUARTERLY PHOTO: (ABOVE) COURTESY BRETT FROOMER "It's more robust than a 'sponsored by' tag," says Sean Muller, CEO of ad tracking fi rm iSpot, "and the networks aren't com- pletely tuning away from the content." Six-second ads can also be e ective when they're used as quick stand-alone breaks, Muller says, like Toyota did as part of its overall sponsorship of the Olympics coverage. There's an obvious creative challenge with micro ads, adds Muller, "but our data shows that you're not getting less of the consumer's attention, even though there's less time to deliver a message in a meaningful way." It's no wonder that short-form spots have migrated to TV, experts say, since "bumper" ads have been the norm on YouTube and elsewhere in the digital world for years. Studies say they've been successful on linear TV, and networks are reportedly charging at least as much for a six-second ad as for a :15. Brands including T-Mobile, Mars, Duracell and Amazon have been early adopters of the format. And tiny commer- cials have also made noise in prestigious places, with six-second ads having a show- case for two years running at the Sundance Film Festival. Even so, Hall can't resist taking a jab at the format, saying, "We're doing six-second ads because fi ve seconds is way too short, and who has time to watch for seven sec- onds nowadays?" Hall, who directed Katy Perry's Roar and Beck's Wow music videos and campaigns for Netfl ix and Lexus, recently prepped for a mini-commercial that would involve "4.8 seconds of story and 1.2 seconds of pack- age/logo" for which he planned to "focus on M A D I S O N A V E N U E Six Is the New 30 A N S O F The Walking Dead saw six-second ads for Xbox in front of epi- sodes of the AMC zombie drama last fall, and view- ers of the recent Winter Olympics caught mini-commercials for Toyota during that marquee sports event on NBC. These come on the heels of snack- sized spots in 2017's Teen Choice Awards and this past season's Major League Baseball and NFL games on Fox. If predictions from media watchers are accurate, six-second commercials will be even more prevalent in the year ahead as television networks experiment with their ad formats and brands seek to grab con- sumers' ever-fl eeting attention. Commercial director Grady Hall has noticed the trend but admitted to having mixed feelings about the short-form com- mercial, which he thinks can be an entrée to more substantial work but doesn't count "as a full engagement." "It's a moment, a hook, a tease," says Hall, whose 2016 campaign for Turkish Airlines around the Euro Cup started with a 30-sec- ond hero spot but also featured three-to- 10-second snippets he shot that showcased the sponsor brand's in-fl ight amenities in a sports stadium setting. "It's more than a beat, but it's not storytelling in the tradi- tional sense with character development, a beginning, middle and end." With viewer numbers falling and cord cutting on the rise, television networks are searching for ways to improve the on-air experience, shorten ad breaks and engage multitasking, meme-conditioned ad-skip- ping audiences. Broadcasters are increasingly splitting the physical screen, airing short-form ads on one side while programming continues on the other. Research has found that the tactic holds onto audiences and drives ad recall. F IS THE MICRO AD, PREVALENT DURING RECENT MARQUEE SPORTING EVENTS, A PASSING FAD OR A WAVE OF THE FUTURE? SOME EXPERTS WEIGH IN | BY T.L. STANLEY FOCUS » Much of what director Brett Froomer has seen in the six-second realm has been whittled down from longer ads. » Brands that have adapted the micro-ad format include, from the top, Toyota, a primary sponsor of NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics; Amazon; M&Ms; and Duracell, which took advantage of the split screen to hold the viewer's attention during the 2017 World Series.