Viewability and the 1-Second Ad
Have you heard about viewability? It’s a simple metric that tracks actual impressions that can be seen by users. For example: if an ad is at the bottom of the website and the person doesn’t scroll down so it can be seen, it is not registered as an impression and is not “viewable.”
Researchers wanted to know if being viewable really matters, so a new study tested banner, large formats and video ads. The ads were believed to be viewable if they were “in view” for 1 second and video ads for 2 seconds.
This study, by Integrated Ad Science and Cadreon, used a 10,000-person sample size. For large format ads, the results were strong: The ads that met the viewability standards (where more than 50% had looked at the ads) were remembered by nearly 20% of the people involved. Not bad for a 1-second ad.
Ads are getting shorter and shorter. PepsiCo Chief Marketing Officer, Seth Kaufman, reported that they were using 5-second ads for pre-roll on YouTube with great effect. We all know 30 seconds is too long for pre-roll and so we look to use :15s. Yet the pros are starting to use even shorter assets with great effect. Shorter is the new king of content, and we all will need to get much better at narrowing our messaging to fit the new format.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.