42 Seconds

The running time of the spot is...

The running time of the spot is...

I read this interesting post by Bart Cleveland on Adage.com that the secret to a great TV commercial is not necessarily in the creative but the running time:

So how long is the perfect time for a TV commercial? There is no one specific time, but after polling many of my peers, it seems that the sweet spot is 42 seconds. Thirty seconds is too short and 60 seconds is too long. Eureka! The answer to my imperfection is discovered and it’s not my fault! It was the television executive in the late ’40s who came up with the billing increments for media. He is the one that should be burned in effigy, not we creatives.

The 42-second spot is the answer. It will end retreading old ideas. It will end having to use millions of dollars in production to try to replace an idea with spectacle. It will allow us to perfectly communicate a single compelling idea in irresistible fashion. Every day will be like watching the great Super Bowl spots from years past.

Hm. I wonder how right he is. I looked at Best Buy’s program in the stores right now.

In February, there are 66 clips totaling about 58 minutes. Out of those 66 clips, 12 meet the traditional broadcast standards: two spots run :15, five spots run :30, three spots run :60, and two spots run :90.

When working with clients, regardless of the type of content, I stress that we do not live within the broadcast standards of time, that we can make the clips as long or as short as needed to “tell the perfect story.” The goal is not to just sell a product or service, but to “perfectly communicate a single compelling idea in irresistible fashion,” as Mr. Cleveland writes.

Including all 66 clips, the average running time of a clip on the program is 52 seconds. However, five of those clips run at least two minutes. These are “long form” clips – entertainment content from TV, movies, concerts, video games, and branding education. If I remove those five clips, I find a new number.

The average running time of the 61 clips on the program? 45 seconds.

I think we’re on to something here.

  • http://web.mac.com/mikejstudio Mike J

    That is, indeed, a great thing about in-store promotions: not having to conform to broadcast standards for length is HUGE! I’m surprised more clients don’t take advantage of it. Are they trying to save money by just using the spots they use for TV?

    Interestingly, I worked for a company that created syndicated TV ads. We did mainly 30 second spots and found that, in order to get most ads to run at 30 seconds, we usually had to cut about 10 seconds off of what we thought was the best runtime for the ad. Hmmm…

  • http://www.quividi.com Olivier Duizabo

    Paul, we’re in the business of measuring the audience of digital signage screens and I can tell you 42’’ is way beyond the average attention time or even dwell time of shoppers in store.
    Of course, attention is largely driven by the pace of shopping (whether people are browsing a category, like in an electronic superstore, or rushing to fill up their cart); there are also a few screens that command higher attention, but those are generally due to constrained situations, such as queuing at cash registers; in most other situations, however, the average attention we’ve measured is in the low seconds.

    Does this mean that all clips intended for Digital Signage should be made very short?
    Not necessarily, but you’ll want to avoid linear stories and favor instead repeated, clear messages & graphics that convey simple messages.

    By the way, our company, Quividi, will be a speaker at the next Digital Signage Expo conference on audience measurement and will touch on those issues.

  • Paul Flanigan

    Oliver,

    Thank you for the comment. I think you’re right. My thought is that, given the environment and audience dwell time, we have the opportunity to tell stories with a running time for suited for both the viewer and the story, rather than be bound by a running time prescribed for other screens in other environments.

    As I wrote, the average is 45 seconds, but the long form entertainment has a purpose as well as the 15 seconds informational pieces.

    It all depends on the environment and the viewer, as we are aware.

    I will also be speaking at DSE during content day and will show how I was able to help tell stronger stories with both long and short content.

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