How long should your advert last and when should you hit your audience with unique selling points (USPs)? Timing is everything and hitting the right notes at the right time is the difference between your audience visiting your website or pressing mute. 

Time to Shine

The ideal length of your advertisement varies depending on three factors: 

1. Location, Location, Location

Adverts can be shown on multiple platforms, so either focus on one main platform or create multiple versions for maximum optimisation. An advert on Facebook should ideally be 60 seconds, 30 seconds for television, and up to 15 seconds for YouTube. 

2. Countdown 

Do your market research. How long is the average viewer going to watch an advert on the platform of your choice? How long is your target audience going to watch? Don’t make an advert your customers won’t want to watch or you might turn them off your brand altogether. 

3. Cash to Splash

If you’re planning to air an advert on television, remember that the longer your advert runs the more it will cost. The cost of your advert will also depend on the platform you want to broadcast it on, as different channels charge different hosting fees. 

Making Your Time Up

Let’s break down five adverts of different lengths and examine how they use timing to maximise their impact. 

1. Breaking Records

The longest television advert, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, lasted a whopping 14 hours! Shown exclusively in Brazil, it filled a gap between scheduled television much like teleshopping does on British satellite channels. Creating this was no small feat, with production and editing lasting months. 

The brand which produced this gargantuan advert is one you’ll definitely have heard of: Old Spice. Their advertising campaign, created by Procter & Gamble, has been so successful that it led to a 60% increase in sales of Old Spice products after the first advert aired when the initial increase target had only been 15%. 

The Old Spice adverts have been so successful, their campaign has run for over 10 years. It’s accomplishments are down to its fast humour, excellent audience targeting and fantastic casting. From the offset, Old Spice adverts start selling, packing a perfect punch into its longest and shortest ads. 

2. Blink and You’ll Miss It

On the other end of the spectrum are adverts so short it’s entirely possible to miss them: blipverts. 

What’s the point of that you ask? In a world of fast-forwarding, ad-blocking and skip buttons, getting to the point quickly is an artform that’s worth mastering. 

The shortest Superbowl advert to ever run was half a second long. Viewers caught sight of a logo and heard the name. Curiosity was piqued. The Seattle restaurant Ivar’s is known locally for its eccentric advertising campaign, but this stunt took the brand to a new level of national infamy. 

But the record holder for the shortest ever advert goes even further. The adverts for MuchMusic last 1/60^th of a second, appearing on screen as a flash of an image. These would be run concurrently during advertisement breaks to ensure viewers took notice. 

3. Epic Odyssey

After hearing about an advert 14 hours long, something 90 seconds or over seems fairly tame. But compared to the average length, this is considered quite the investment. It’s rare for adverts to last longer than 30 seconds, so having something running for 90 seconds plus is certainly attention grabbing. 

These long-form adverts can also be shortened into multiple segments making them very adaptable. On British TV, these long adverts are typically infomercials (think JML) or Christmas placements (John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Aldi etc.). 

Warburton’s is a British companies that frequently likes to break the 30 second average. Whether it’s Robert de Nero creating a bagel empire, Peter Kay romancing the wholegrain, or The Muppets singing about crumpets, each advert is worthy of the time it takes and proudly showcases the product. 

4. Running on Standard

Most adverts last between 15 and 30 seconds. An interesting way to shake up this average, however, is to create a series of adverts that run on from each other. This gives viewers an incentive to keep watching, which helps reinforce your brand in their memory, without paying for a longer advert which could lose the attention of an audience. The adverts can then be spliced together to create a longer advert to show on YouTube or your website. 

Take a look at this compilation of John Smiths adverts. The brewery used the same group of actors throughout the series of adverts – including the well-known comedian Peter Kay. The plot often ran on from the same location, e.g., a wedding, a restaurant. 

They became so popular with viewers that, when the advert series ended in 2005, there was a public campaign calling for its return. 

5. Topsy Turvy

You can also run what is a called a top and tail advert. These are two adverts in the same television break of 15 seconds each, giving a total length of 30 seconds. These adverts are usually run by show sponsors. 

John Lewis, for example, sponsors Channel 4, specifically their home related content (Homes on 4) like Grand Designs or A Place in the Sun. Their adverts are created to run before and after each commercial break, which is why they decided to use this advert style. 

Have a look at their latest advert. The video below is the full version, which is split before airing on television to follow the top and tail format. 

Content Worth Gold

Get in touch with the Squideo team today to find out how we can improve your advertising strategy with video production, motion graphics, social media management and much more!