The Irony of 6-Second Commercials in the Era of Binge-Watching

Went to a Garden Party recently, filled with mostly people from the content arts, vs. my historical entourage, which is more comfortable on Madison Avenue than Hollywood or Broadway.

Almost all of the party goers were actors, producers and writers, several whom have programs running on Amazon and other digital networks; or are in development for various other venues, including off-Broadway. 

They were talking about the new golden age of television. My ears perked up.

Being the only ad guy among this interesting crowd, while everyone was talking about the incredible feeling of appreciation that binge watchers give them, I was the sole contrarian voice, talking about the pressures advertisers are under to get their message out, in as little as 6-seconds… just enough time that YouTube and other ad-supported content networks require their viewers to watch before they can elect to “Skip Ad.”

This made me wonder.

Earlier this month, in this announcement, “Fox is about to debut six-second TV ads” the rationale was that “The arrival of six-second ads on traditional TV points to the growing influence of digital video advertising.” 

There’s no other way to read this other than to see that blame has been assigned. It is "us" in digital media that killed creative advertising. Apparently, “Short, snappy ad spots are the norm on prominent digital platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Snap.” 

As reported by Business Insider, about the Fox announcement, “Launching similar ad formats on TV could signal the effectiveness, and audiences’ preferences, for snackable ad formats.”

Snackable ad formats….?

Forgive the cynicism, but “snackable” has to-date been associated with content, not advertising. According to TechTarget, “Snackable content is website content that is designed to be easy for readers to consume and to share.”

This flies in the face with the trend of binge-watching which is anything but a snack. According to Deloitte’s 10th annual Digital Democracy Survey, they report that 70% of Americans Binge-watch. Call it whatever you want. Digital Trends writes that “binging, marathon viewing, couch potato-ing, it all boils down to the same thing: 70 percent of Americans are watching TV shows in large spurts, consuming an average of five episodes of a program at a time."

Sounds like the obesity problem we have in the U.S. applies as much to content snacks as it does to a person’s weight. Yes, they are of course related, but that’s a topic for another article.

Add to the confusion that according to eMarketer, social sites are grabbing attention with video, especially among millennials and iGens, more than ever before.

Once one digests these convolution of factors, snackable ad formats, binge watching and more video than ever before, can you see where all this is going? 

If there is someone or something to blame, the true culprit of short, shorter, shortest commercial messages isn't Madison Avenue or even digital marketing. The guilt that brought the end of advertising as the primary funder of free content (in exchange for watching commercials) - is something that digital marketing actually takes credit for... $$ revenue from subscriptions.

When content producers no longer have to rely on Madison Avenue, or the Upfront to determine what they choose to produce, they can jump the commercial shark and go right to consumers to foot the bill, right?

Uh, the crowd wasn't sure.

The irony that digital was the fly in the ointment which first challenged the historical unspoken agreement between content producers and advertisers wasn't lost, at least on me. In exchange for 22 minutes of every 30-minute segment, the viewer had to sit through 8 minutes, or generally 16 :30 commercial messages.

What will that mean in the age of 6-second spots? The math is easy. 

Assuming 8-minutes are still set aside for every 30 minutes on Fox, (or 480 commercial seconds), by their own sales projections, that will mean that Fox could run as many as 80 different 6-second spots in one half hour of programming. That’s not so easy to digest.

While consumers aren’t comfortable anymore to sit still for 16 commercials, does 6th Avenue actually think that they are going to for 80 spots per half-hour?

Ironically, Netflix was the "founder of the birther-movement of binge-watching" in our culture. Now, with Amazon getting into programming more than ever before, the current model of course is that both of these channels are commercial free... at the moment. We will see how long that stays unchanged.

So... now back to the Garden Party.

When I made these points to the once-incredibly glee-full binge-watching fan crowd who were all feeling really appreciated for their work, after several more glasses of white wine, as they started doing the left-brain-based metrics, it left them a bit puzzled, about how these two conflicting trends are going to meet. 

A chilling freeze came across several of their faces. 

The idea that with subscriptions being the primary funder of content is fundamentally capped/limited to upscale audiences. This, combined with more content being produced than ever before, and the added element of AI (artificial intelligence) lurking in the back of everyone’s mind, actors, producers and writers will once again have to deal with another trend that will rain on their otherwise sunny garden party parade, as advertisers once again infringe on the actor's space, with more ads planted into programing again, A.K.A. "product placement."

Not sure I’ll be invited back. :--))