Are 5-Second Online Video Advertisements Effective?

Abstract: 5-second online video advertisements have emerged in the advertising scene as an ultra-short, theory defying phenomenon and scholars have yet to fully study its effectiveness. Up until recently, marketers have understood that advertisement effectiveness depends upon advertisement length, justifying the use of longer advertisement forms of 15-seconds or more. With the introduction of 5-second online video advertisements, one questions whether such a format is effective. The effectiveness of 5-second online video advertisements was examined with respect to brand recall, message recall and advertisement likeability. More specifically, the effects of advertisement length, and interruption as a moderating variable were investigated for a 5- second online video advertisement. A 15-second version of the same advertisement was used for comparison reasons. An experiment was conducted using an online survey tool, with participants asked to view a YouTube video with an advertisement. Loglinear analysis and two-way analysis of variance were used to analysis results for each of the variables of advertisement effectiveness in isolation. Findings indicated that 5-second online video advertisements were relatively inadequate at producing brand recall, message recall or advertisement likeability in comparison to their longer versions. Interruption was found to moderate the relationship between advertisement length and effectiveness. However, results for brand recall, message recall and advertisement likeability remained weak for the 5-second version. Interruption had a much larger moderating effect for the 15-second version, suggesting that 5-second advertisements are hindered by their length. Resultantly, 5-second advertisements were deemed too short to be effective with respect to brand recall, message recall and likeability.