Tor Myhren, Film Lions president and vice-president of marketing communications at Apple, told the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity the industry needs to get better at short-form ads.
He said: “The industry has to get better at short-form because short-form is concise, it's fast. It's one of the great ways that a brand can tell their story.”
Orange and Sydney Opera House took home the Grands Prix for this category, with the latter being almost four-and-a-half minutes. This was an exception, as Myren commented on how people don’t have the time to watch long ads, especially online when brands are constantly competing with endless entertainment.
According to the Film Lions president, the short-form content that was entered in the category “just wasn’t exceptional” and if brands and agencies want to create impactful work, it needs to be concise and grab the audience quickly.
Campaign also spoke to Liquid Death during the festival, with Dan Murphy, senior vice-president of marketing, and Andy Pearson, vice-president of creative, suggesting that brands not only have to compete with their rivals but with the entertainment the ads depend on.
The pair stressed the importance of treating marketing as a source of entertainment for the consumer. It might be the case that long-form content offers more space to be creative and entertaining.
With this in mind, does adland need to up its game on short-form ads?
Vicki Maguire
Chief creative officer, Havas London
I get it—I’ve spent far too many hours in jury rooms watching pieces of content so indulgent I’ve wanted to stick hot needles in my eyes. But then I’ve also been 10 minutes and beyond into longer-form films I haven’t wanted to end. It’s about doing what’s right for the work. Creatives, ask yourselves: Is this three-minute director’s cut for a deodorant self-indulgent wank, or is it worthy of another few hundred quid of your agency’s hard-earned? Longer isn’t always better. But then neither is shorter. Just make damn sure every second, shot, line, plot twist, joke, whatever, is there for a reason. Thirty minutes or 30 seconds, if it’s crap, it’s going to get ignored regardless.
Martin Rose
Executive creative director, Mother London
Ultimately, both points are valid, but the entertainment value of content takes precedence over any prescribed duration. For example, and for the same brand, we had "Trains—now on Uber" 30-second short because the story warranted that length. Conversely, Uber One required a longer format to develop the friendship between Robert De Niro and Asa Butterfield fully, it held viewers' attention for more than three minutes.
Judging an ad's creativity based solely on its length is reductive. I’d hate to think Uber Trains won gold merely for being short or Uber One lost marks for its length… the question I hope jurors asked is whether the content is engaging throughout and the length fits the task.
I’m tired of hearing that all content must hook viewers within the first three seconds or that Gen Z lacks an attention span. People say our attention span has shortened, all while feature-length films have got longer, on average. Human engagement has always been about the quality and entertainment value of content, not its length. The need isn’t for shorter ads; it is for better ones.
Chaka Sobhani
President and global chief creative officer, DDB Worldwide
I think it’s tricky to get to great film whether long- or short-form.
Having time doesn’t guarantee a good story well told. I think the key is creating more specifically for a particular duration and platform. Audiences consume in different ways in different places. And trying to create one-size-fits-all can really hurt the quality, storytelling and impact of a film.
The quality of short-form can be hugely diminished if it’s just a cutdown from something longer versus being created for a specific duration. That said, I think you also have to be really honest about how much you’re trying to cram into shorter durations—we have to keep it simple and not feel it has to carry multiple messaging alongside delivering emotionally in some way.
Richard Warren
Director brand, marketing and corporate affairs, Nationwide
If short-form is simply "less than 60 seconds", as Tor Myrhen suggests, adland already has an elite game in this space. If short-form means "platform native video", I am immensely confident adland will up its game. In my experience, adland is never more creative than when faced with a constraint. There is a significant shift in demand towards platform-specific short-form video—I am certain adland’s creative wunderkind will be straining every sinew to work out what it takes to be brilliant here too. It will define their careers.
Samaneh Zamani
Strategy director, Iris
The fact that we’re still asking this question is worrying; we’ve been speaking about the need to move towards short-form ads for years. It’s long overdue for adland, and brands, to be more tangible about how we do it. People are moving faster than brands when it comes to creating interesting short-form content and they are changing the way we spread information and telling stories.
This isn’t about communicating the same amount of information in less time. It’s about being hypercritical about what exactly the ad needs to deliver and doing so with the curated specificity viewers on each channel demand.
So the challenge is, what does good storytelling look like in a short-form world for your brand? Do you know in the deepest, simplest sense who your brand is, and what you’re trying to communicate? What are you willing to fix and flex to ensure consistency, while accommodating for shorter time lengths?
This is a pressing issue that many clients are eager to address, and it will be the focus of our upcoming webinar, "Cutdown killers", addressing how brands can master the pivot from broadcast to social.
Shelley Smoler
Chief creative officer, Droga5
Forget the time-length debate. We know the drill: The world’s moving at breakneck speed. Attention spans are shrinking and we’ve got seconds to grab our viewers. But whether it’s a six-second blip or a minute-long masterpiece is irrelevant. We need to stop thinking in minutes, but in moments.
The real question is: how do we grab people’s attention and refuse to let go? Whether it’s short or long, a single image or a film, it needs to stop people in their tracks. Time is a function of attention.
And as anyone who’s ever watched a teenager play Fortnite for a fortnight knows, attention spans are the most negotiable of timeslots. If it has impact, it can stick around longer than it has any right to.
Lynsey Atkin
Executive creative director, 4Creative
Short-form ads demand we get to the point.
We often lament the demise of the killer 30-second spot by pointing the finger at marketers who want too much, who can’t decide on a single-minded proposition, who are simply trying to say too much. I’d venture the opposite is true. Our short-form ads aren’t good enough when we can’t find enough to say – and then, in some twist of madness, we make them anyway.
If you lack a great insight or a sharp idea or a point of view in longer form, sure, you can get away with a banging track and luxuriating in some decent film craft, fundamentally communicating some sort of vibe. Hell, when it’s done well, you can even get away with what we’ve started calling documentaries (which we all know they aren’t).
But short form does not allow for this. You absolutely have to have something genuinely interesting or surprising or fun to say—and something to sell—otherwise, genuinely, what is the point?
