The Fast Entertainment Era: The Rise of Shorts and the Fall of long OVCs.

I would like to start off this article by saying that I personally believe that ATL is on the verge of death and digital is the inevitable future, I know I may be offending a lot of people but I will prove it to you with data. So let me start off with TV Viewership, from 2018 to 2022, major news networks in the US and UK have lost over 30% of their viewership. Click here for source. Similar data can be seen as you analyze the print media market. Now here's the thing, while TV and print media are less interactive and let's say less engaging than digital media; attention span also plays a big role in it. While in terms of social media, its popularity is only rising and will only keep on rising. The following illustration shows the popularity of different platforms:

Attention Span:

Human beings over the course of civilization have only shortened their attention span as long as we have progressed and with the advent of technology; this became shorter and shorter and at a faster rate too. In fact, the average human attention span shrunk by nearly a quarter between the years 2000 and 2015, and we’re now lagging behind the humble goldfish in terms of being able to focus on a task or object.

A study conducted by Microsoft Corp indicates that people now generally start to lose concentration after about eight seconds especially if they are not interested in content. This figure has been falling over the years and is now at an all-time low. 

There is a myriad of reasons why attention spans get shorter and scientists have been following these reasons for decades now. Along with the fact of why as human beings, we are so forgetful and how we can prevent certain things from happening. The infographic on the left will give you an insight into our attention span as we have progressed as a civilization. The good news is that there are ways to retain attention for a longer period of time but only when the content resonates with your audience, is necessary for your audience, or is entertaining/useful for your audience.

All The Big Companies are Jumping the Bandwagon:

Big brands such as Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi have already doubled their investment in digital and short content as a whole. Meanwhile, tech companies such as Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok are doubling down on their shorts game. A report by Facebook suggests that Facebook Average Ad View is down to only 23 Seconds! Meanwhile, Youtube has reported that it hits 30 Billion views on its shorts per day! With such data in mind, marketers are increasingly investing in shorts and witty catchy static content (Yes, the 90s and the good old days of copywriting are back! Woohoo!). Consumers also feel discouraged to watch longer ads. According to IPG, 65% of people skip video ads, and they do so the first chance they get. What’s more, not all users do it because they want to skip this particular ad. As many as 76% disclosed that they tend to skip ads out of habit.

On the other hand, short-based platforms such as Tiktok are witnessing staggering growth as consumers are tired of watching long videos riddled with ads and now look for fast entertainment.

So if you are making a video commercial for your brand or your client. Make sure to keep it short, catchy, and always, always make sure that you need to make a 6 Second version of it to put it as a pre-roll ad and a < 15-second version to set it up as a non-skippable ad. And last but not the least, invest in shorts.

About the Author:

Hi! I am Sabbir Islam, I started my first business when I was 15, it was an online magazine called Youthsparks, we ran it for four years, and at its peak had 100k visitors worldwide per month. Then I ran a food cart called Cinnamon Sugar where I handled the digital marketing and branding. Then I worked in a digital agency as a project manager alongside being a freelance writer and an undergrad student; throughout the last six years, I have run my digital agency, Wire (www.wiredmm.com), and helped build, nurture, and grow sales of 200+ SMEs and nationwide brands. We have a 50+ people team HQ in Dhaka with regional operations in Chittagong, Sylhet, Australia, and India. Brand building and strategization are the core of what I do in Wire and most of Wire's success has been based on the fact that we even brand SMEs as multinational corporations do. That's our forte and our data-centric marketing allows sales increment within months of retainers for most clients. We believe proper branding, witty campaigns, catchy copies, statics, and exciting creatives can generate much more ROI than extensive budget campaigns.