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YouTube has introduced Bumper ads, a new 6-second pre-roll video ad format, reports Adweek.
These ads will run before videos, like YouTube's traditional TrueView ads. Unlike TrueView, however, Bumper ads cannot be skipped. The new ad format will roll out to advertisers in May, and media buyers can purchase Bumper slots through Google AdWords.
The unveiling of the new Bumper ad product on YouTube will further sustain Google's reliance on YouTube to drive revenues.
In related matters, the search engine giant has been vocalizing the relative advantages that YouTube has over traditional media as an ad destination. Last week, the company purported that YouTube reaches more 18-34 year olds and 18-49 year olds than any TV network on mobile, according to a Google-commissioned story conducted by Ipsos, comScore, and Nielsen.
In addition, Bumper ads play into a number of trends currently unfolding in the digital ad space:
- Mobile-first, online video. The Bumper ad format is mobile-focused and catered for the emerging mobile world. Its short timespan is tailored to the diminished levels of patience that users tend to have when browsing on their smartphones, while also ensuring viewability. 65% of digital time in the US was spent on mobile at the end of 2015, according to a comScore report, while the majority of the developing world's first online experience will be mobile. Therefore, developing a mobile-first ad format is very important.
- Multi-platform, personalized marketing. The Bumper ad format could act as an additional reference point for advertisers to help structure their creative campaigns across multiple platforms and devices. For instance, Audi created a 45-second ad spot used as a TrueView ad into a 6-second clip adapted for Bumper. This will make it easier for brands to run parallel campaigns across different formats and platforms, on both linear TV and digital channels. Furthermore, Slicing longer ads in this manner also allows for the creation of dynamic creative — or slicing long-form content into multiple short-form ads each targeting different audiences.
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