If You Only Had 6 Seconds, What Would You Say?

Impactful employer brand messaging should be a key initiative for any organization, especially to attract and engage top talent. However, if you only had six seconds to tell your story, would you be able to get your point across to candidates effectively?

If your answer is yes, your organization is already on the right path. If your answer is no, you have some work to do to prepare for the era of 6-second ads on the horizon for 2018.

Large outlets like Sundance, Fox and Facebook have already begun putting work into six-second advertisements, and it’s looking more and more like it’s going to be a normal practice for leading brands next year.

Why should you start thinking about six-second ads now? When leading companies start setting the bar in this wheelhouse, other companies are going to be forced to compete or fall short on consumer expectations.

Taking us back to the days of Vine, what can we expect from these shorter ads?

More focused messaging With only six seconds, you have to truly tap into your target audience, the platform you are using for the messaging, and the tools and resources you use. You have a short time to get your story or point across, and it needs to be effective, impactful, and attention-grabbing in order to be successful.

Increase in ad recall and brand awareness YouTube created bumper ads to target the moments when people are in a hurry or on the go. Through YouTube’s studies, they found that out of over 300 bumper ads, nine out of ten drove a significant growth in ad recall. Also, Google led a study on its bumper ads, finding that 61 percent grew brand awareness throughout their target audiences.

Younger folks will get it Let’s face it, the consumer population is increasingly becoming “younger.” With shorter attention spans, and a lot of options to get information, younger generations can be easily drawn in with a six-second ad versus a 15- or 30-second ad. Green Chef, a meals service, has found success in initially grabbing attention of their audience through shorter ads, and finds that longer ads can be saved for retargeting.

Improves user experience Fox Networks Group introduced six-second ads this past weekend during its live broadcast of Teen Choice 2017. Through a mixture of diverse ad formats, Fox hopes to improve viewer experience while watching TV in the future. Maybe these improvements will drive users to get rid of their DVR options and go back to live TV more, but I’m not holding my breath.

Either way, six-second ads have the ability to produce high-quality, easily digestible and impactful brand statements for organizations world-wide. For early adopters, these ads have the ability to make a huge impact on talent attraction efforts. So, you better start thinking about what you’re going to say when you get your six seconds of time.