Pointless Trueview Ads
IKEA Sweden
Issue 46 | March 2018
Agency
Åkestam Holst, Stockholm
Creative Team
Creative Art Director Jesper Holst Copywriter Mark Ardelius Creative Director Magnus Jakobsson Digital Strategist Mimmi Grafström Account Director Kjell Månsson Planner Jerker Winther Account Manager Agneta Oppenheim
Production Team
Producer Leila Widgren PR strategist Ida Persson Graphic Designer Sara Bellafesta Production Bacon STH
Date
October 2017
Background
IKEA advertising had been created around the concept of 'Where Life Happens', the brand's attempt to show people that it both understands and is inspired by the reality of people's everyday lives.
One TV spot, for instance, showed the kid of divorced parents had an identical bedroom in both parents' home.
Idea
In the real world, where life happens, Trueview ads on YouTube are annoying.
People can't wait to skip them after the obligatory five seconds. While most brands and their agencies will try all sorts of tricks to try to keep the viewer watching, IKEA turned it the other way.
Three deliberately dull spots were created specifically for YouTube. In one five-minute video, a bad-tempered teenager does the washing up.
"Don't you have better things to do than watch me washing dishes?", he asks.
After 12 seconds, the price of the lamp above the sink pops on-screen.
In an eight-minute video, a couple kiss on the sofa. "You can skip this ad now," says the girl, "this is kinda private."
17 seconds later, the price of the table fades up. 995 SKK.
Results
Average viewing time of each video was three minutes.
Our Thoughts
To paraphrase Think with Google, TrueView ads have created a paradox. They remove the constraints of the traditional 30-second spot, giving brands more time to tell their stories. But the skip button means they have to grab attention and hold it.
Here, the creative team have done everything Google will have told them to do. Put the logo up from the very start. Get the provocative 'You can skip now' message out within the first five seconds. But then the rest is just great psychology. Tell people to do precisely what they were about to do anyway, and they wonder why. They begin to believe there must be a hidden reward. No-one would spend money telling you not to watch their ad, surely?
I watched the miserable teenager all the way to the end. When something almost happens. A dog whimpers.