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YouTube plans to remove unskippable 30 second ads in favour of 6 second ads – How will your video production change?

Author's avatar By Patrick Kelly 24 Feb, 2017
Essential Essential topic

Chart of the day: 3 of the top 5 Youtube Adverts from January are over 2 minutes long

Earlier this week news came down the marketing grapevine that Youtube/Google was going to no longer support unskippable 30-second ads in a move that they describe as "providing a better ads experience for users online". This change is scheduled for 2018, so there is still plenty of time to use this type of Ads if you already have them in your upcoming campaign plans.

Come 2018, Youtube will still offer unskippable Ads but of the 6 seconds variety. Less annoying (and much less mobile data) for the user but will cause a rethink to many brand's video strategies.

I am very interested in how brands will adopt to the standard of skippable and 6 seconds unskippable ads and move away from the 2-3 minute mini-movies that are a trend of the last 12 months.

This change will also challenge creative agencies be even more creative when they are tasked with showcasing branding, visuals, message and CTA all in under 6 seconds. While these changes to Youtube's Advertising options are relatively small , they are in stark contrast to Facebook who are embracing longer videos to try and engage users with the brands more effectively.

As this is a chart of the day, here is a rundown of the top 5 Youtube Ads in January 2017 from 5 to 1 for the UK.

In at #5 - Food Dancing (Yum Yum Yum)’ Video - MysDiggi x Sainsburys advert

#4 - #MyFutureSelf - New Balance

#3 - Unleash Your Creativity - Adidas

#2 - How Cisco is making Cyber Security Simple - Cisco

January's Chart topper - #1 - Do you believe in more? - FKA twigs x Nike

Come 2018 what will we see in the top 5 ads? Who knows but I can't wait to find out.

As a final video - here is the top video from 2013:

Author's avatar

By Patrick Kelly

I have spent many years working with both B2B and B2C brands to implement data-driven marketing strategies covering paid search, SEO, Social media and marketing automation. You will also find me catching up on the latest Marvel releases or playing the latest RPG.

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