Making Sure Your Audience Doesn't Skip Your Ads

How often does it happen while checking a website an Ad blocks your view, or while watching a movie, an advertisement interrupts it?

That strong urge to skip such ads is unbeatable and nothing unfamiliar to any of us.

Today, we have the option of ad-free content and ads that can be skipped. This results in an impatient audience with minimal to no interest in any advertising communication.

Why Your Audience is Skipping the Advertisement

Sugar Coating

As a brand, one attempts to put up a positive image for the brand and doesn’t want to include anything that’s negative. However, while painting this positive picture, many brands end up sugarcoating the content which hinders the audience from connecting with the brand.

Advertisements by Glow and Lovely can be classified as sugar coated content as they set unrealistic expectations through their messaging. In addition, the designs are often photoshopped and perfected to look the best. This further makes the brand hard to connect with.

(Source: APlus Media)

Nothing to be curious about

While the audience doesn’t enjoy sugar coated content, they don’t want brands being plainly rational either.

Branding and marketing in advertisements work as tools of storytelling. You need to create a narrative that engages the audience and helps them understand and find interest in the concept.

Consider the advertisement by Gemini cooking oil. While it promotes #AbHaiMummyKaTime, it focuses on mothers being trapped in the kitchen and not having time for themselves. Then the brand establishes how food made by Gemini oil stays fresh for long. However, no one talks about helping the mothers. Hence, the advertisements take a predictable approach.

(Source: Ytimg)

A new concept but an unappealing idea

The audience wants change; however, you cannot expect them to engage with a concept that becomes misleading and takes away from the advertisements. Cadbury’s Unity Bar can be a great example for this. The brand decided to showcase unity in diversity with their chocolate bar made with different types of chocolates. The idea though phenomenal took a bit of a turn when audiences identified the advertisement relating the chocolates with skin colours. It led to heavy backlash.

(Source: Ytimg)

While everyone wants to skip these advertisements, is it possible to find ways of encouraging viewers to avoid doing so?

Prevent the Audience from Skipping the Advertisement

Incorporate a new idea

It is crucial for brands to choose concepts and ideas that resonate with their audience. Mirayah by Tanishq does this phenomenally while presenting their collection. The advertisement focuses on being fabulous at 40. While most advertisements for jewellery revolve around a younger audience, celebrating turning 40 was a fresh take by the brand. This change engages the audience with the advertisement beyond 5 seconds.

(Source: PBS)

Create an honest feeling with your content

As discussed earlier, a ton of photoshop and shimmery text with pristine sets will make your content look unrealistic which audiences will find difficulty in relating with. Hence, Dove advertisements stand out to the audience. Often these advertisements are relatable and show real people. Hence, the audience finds it easy to connect with the brand.

(Source: Business Insider)

Storytelling works and stories sell

Sell a story instead of a brand. Many times we notice that brands focus on selling their products; however, once a brand starts selling a story, audiences find it easy to connect with their product.

Fevicol’s campaign celebrating 60 years of the brand can be an example for storytelling. Instead of talking about how Fevicol has been in the market for 60 years, the brand narrates a story about a sofa and how it has been around for 60 years.

Another example of this would be the Doublemint ad with ‘Ek Ajnabee Haseena Se’ song. It depicts the story of a couple through different years and milestones while showcasing the product.

(Source: Ytimg) (Source: Behance)

These simple yet effective ways will help you connect with your audience. Be authentic and clear with your communication. Engaging and entertaining the audience is crucial to prevent them from skipping advertisements. Instead of choosing unskippable advertisements every time, one can find creative ways to get the point across. Being experimental with the content and identifying what attracts your audience helps brands to stay relevant. Once you know how to engage them, optimize it in different ways to prevent the target viewers from skipping your advertisement.

To create engaging video advertisements for your brand that are un-skippable, click here to connect with our team.

To know more about how to create overall successful campaigns, click here to read our blog.