YouTube is launching Bumpers, a 6-second unskippable ad unit

by: Lucy Davidson Apr 27, 2016

YouTube has announced a 6-second “Bumper” ad unit that users can’t skip, ostensibly creating a new source of ad revenue for the service used by more than a billion people worldwide. The ads have been designed specifically with mobile devices in mind, primarily due to their lightweight nature. Video ads product manager Zach Lupei explained the concept behind the new ads in a blog post: “We like to think of Bumper ads as little haikus of video ads – and we’re excited to see what the creative community will do with them.”

Trials of the ad format revealed that the Bumpers worked best when the short bursts told a story over time, and when they are combined with other YouTube ads. For example, Audi Germany cut a 45-second “True View” spot (which allows users to skip after five seconds) into a series of Bumper ads to promote its Q-series SUV. Atlantic Records has also experimented with the format to promote Rudimental’s new album, which features collaborations with Ed Sheeran, Bobby Womack, and Lianne La Havas. Fiona Byers, senior marketing manager, found that Bumpers “each gave a short sharp insight into a featured artist and individual track on the album, with TrueView providing the fuller story around the album and the band. When used in conjunction, TrueView plus Bumpers really work more effectively than either format on its own.”

Bumpers’ introduction may be a response to an increased marketer demand for metrics like viewability (whether the ad was in-view in the browser for a certain number of seconds) and completion rates, which helps inform the effectiveness of ad campaigns. Snapchat’s VP of Content Nick Bell corroborated the sentiment at Advertising Week Europe earlier in April that watching entire video ads was an over-used strategy by advertisers and video platforms. “Just because I created a 30-second TV spot doesn’t mean it’s the optimum amount of time to view that content,” he stated. “Research shows attention span on mobile is much lower, getting a message across in two, three, four, five seconds is often more powerful than trying to stretch out a message and build a load of context.”

H/T: Business Insider UK