USA Today reports that TV advertisers are shifting to shorter commercials. The number of 15-second television commercials has jumped more than 70% in five years to nearly 5.5 million last year, according to Nielsen.
The trend isn’t all that surprising. Today, people are pretty adept at tuning out tiresome commercials and research now shows that longer spots aren't necessarily better. With the right creative marketers can get a bigger bang running a heavier schedule of concise blips.
Case in point: Victoria Secret’s new “Bombshell Bra” commercial packs a heck of lot of sell into 15-seconds, though I wonder why this spot doesn't work harder by driving traffic to the VS website. Short format commercials airing on Hulu do this seamlessly because they are clickable. The fusion of broadcasting and web browsing should evolve quickly as new interactive television platforms such as Google TV become mainstream.
