How UNHCR Used One of the Most Irritating Features on YouTube to Its Advantage
The longest 5 seconds of anyone's life is waiting to hit the "Skip Ad" button on YouTube. It's called the TrueView ad format on YouTube which allows viewers to skip ads after viewing the first 5 seconds. Do you skip most of these ads too?
Now consider the following video as one of the ads and let me know whether you would skip this ad...
If your answer is NO, I will not be surprised. This video is the winning entry of a competition which was launched by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as part of their 'The Seven Day Brief' challenge powered by YouTube.
UNHCR challenged the participants to encourage those living in the GCC and throughout MENA to make donations towards innocent Syrian refugee families that need help.
I stumbled upon this ad before playing a video and thought that this was one of the best uses of the TrueView ad format on YouTube. On clicking the ad, I was taken to the campaign's landing page.
3 key lessons to be learnt:
- YouTube TrueView ads can be used effectively to communicate your message. Use the first 5 seconds as a strong puller to grab the attention of the viewers.
- Let the message be simple to understand.
- Create a story around your ad.
Have you come across any interesting TrueView ad on YouTube? Share your stories and examples by commenting below.