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Creative Spot Lengths & RetentionTelevision Advertising Impact of :10s,:15s, and :30s Spot Lengths

February, 2009

Jeffrey Louis, Sr. Planner

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Television Advertising Overview

• Television shows are measured by rating points.

• A rating point is an indicator of how well a show performs:• In a given time period• To a specific audience • In a given DMA (market)

• A rating point is the percentage of people watching a specific program in relation to the total number of people watching TV during that program’s time period

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Television Advertising Overview

• Ratings are determined by Share and PUT

• Share = percentage of people tuned to a specific station as a percentage of the total People Using Television

• PUT (People Using Television) = percent of the target audience viewing TV in the DMA as a percent of the total target audience in the DMA

• Share x PUT = Rating

• Example: Grey’s Anatomy runs Thursday night from 8p-9p

• The total W25-54 PUT for this period is 50%

• The share of W25-54 for Grey’s Anatomy is 30.7%

• The rating is: .307 x .50 x 100, or 15.5 rating points for Women, 25-54

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Television Advertising Overview

• Ratings points are indicators of a show’s performance. In the Grey’s Anatomy example, 15.5 by itself does not indicate how well the program performs unless compared to other programs airing at the same time.

• Example:

• As we can see from above, Grey’s Anatomy is the number one show during the time period

Show Share Put RatingGrey's Anatomy 30.7% 50% 15.5CSI 25.4% 50% 12.8Kitchen Nightmares 2.6% 50% 1.3The Office/30 Rock 11.8% 50% 5.9

Thursday Night 8p-9p, Madison DMA, W25-54

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Ratings Points

• Ratings help determine Gross Rating Points, or Target Ratings Points (GRPs or TRPs)

• One GRP is defined as 1% of the total target audience universe available in the DMA/market

• Example: Madison has 196,000 Women 25-54 so the Grey’s Anatomy example reaches 30,380 Women 25-54 for each commercial aired

• GRPs for a TV schedule are calculated by multiplying a show’s ratings by the number of times it is purchased• If 4 Grey’s Anatomy were purchased, Grey’s would generate 62

GRPs (15.5 rating points x 4 purchased shows)

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Spot Length

• There are various lengths of commercials sold, ranging from 5-seconds to several minutes

• The most common commercial (spot) length is 30 seconds, followed by 15 seconds and 10 seconds• 60 Second spots were the standard until the 1970s and are still

used for various products

• Today, the industry standard is the 30 second spot

• It is important to note that all commercial lengths attain the same level of GRPs if scheduled during the same TV show• In the Grey’s Anatomy example, a :10s spot, a :15s spot, and

a :30s spot would each be “worth” 15.5 Women 25-54 GRPs despite the spot length

• However, it is assumed that a commercial length less than :30s would deliver less GRPs

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Spot Length

• Theoretically :10s, :15s, and :30s spots are all “equal” in terms of media weight (GRPs)

• However, there have been various studies done on the effectiveness of spot length and message retention

• There are pros and cons to each commercial length

• Cost

• Message complexity

• Product features

• Viewer attention span

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Messaging• For messaging purposes, new products, longer stories or

more complicated messages are best served by longer spot lengths• Messages that make an emotional appeal or have a lot of

information take longer to deliver a compelling message• Charity commercials with a call to action are emotional

• Pharmaceutical commercials are informational

• Spot length can be decreased over time during the same campaign

• Cancer Treatment Centers started with :60s spots, adding :30s as their brand became established

• For well-known advertisers or uncomplicated/compelling messages, it is often not necessary to use longer spots• Partnership for a Drug-Free America

• “This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs. Any Questions?”

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Pros and Cons—:30s TV Commercials• Pros

• More time to tell a complete brand story • Better for brand building campaigns• Good for humorous campaigns• 75-80% the recall of 60-second spots (TV Dimensions 2008) • Less expensive than 60s• Spots that use entertaining elements of humor, cuteness and

children earn higher recall

• Cons• Format may be longer than needed for campaigns that have

simple messages and limited budgets• More expensive than shorter lengths

Television Bureau of Advertising

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Pros and Cons—:15s TV Commercials• Pros

• Roughly 80% as effective in generating attention as a 30-second ad (Admap Sept 2008)

• Can be 75% as effective in terms of recall (Admap Sept 2008)• Good for easy-to-explain messages and campaigns • Suited to modern attention spans• Great for products that already have high brand awareness • Good for quick product demonstrations• Can air with more frequency

• Cons • Not all brand stories can be told in 15 seconds• Not always half the cost of a :30s commercial

Television Bureau of Advertising

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Pros and Cons—:10s TV Commercials• There are two types of :10 spots:

• “Natural” :10 spots and pre-emptible :10 spots• Natural :10 spots occurs in prime, 5p news, 6p news, and

late news (this will depend on the station) –not pre-emptable by a longer length commercial

• All other :10 spots can be preempted

• Pros• Deliver messages before audiences can avoid them• Long enough to make a brand impression• A good way to support campaigns already airing longer spots • Can run high frequency across multiple stations and networks• Budget friendly

• Cons• Do not allow complex messaging• Call to action must be quick and concise

Television Bureau of Advertising

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Other Lengths

• To help advertisers stand out, stations and advertisers are resorting to non-standard creative lengths to aid in message delivery

• In many markets, spot lengths of :5s, :20s, :40s, :45s, :90s and :120s can be purchased• Cadillac ran :5s spots to show how fast their new DTS could go

from 0-60mph• Puma created three :15s spots that featured different athletes in

diverse sports that could run as one :45s spot, three :15s spots, or 6 variations of a :30s spot (1/2, 1/3, 2/1. 2/3, 3/1, 3/2)

New York Times, 04/08/2005 "TV Commercials Adjust to a Shorter Attention Span"

Thank You!

Jeffrey Louis

312.432.8742

jlouis@rpmadv.com