The Yin and Yang of Video Ads: Navigating Skippability and Consumer Irritation
Abstract: Skippable online video advertisements have been around for more than a decade and are widely adopted by marketers (IAB Europe 2018). Nonetheless, literature on this unique ad format is scarce and, thus, we lack a detailed understanding of how these ads are perceived by consumers. The act of skipping poses an interesting but underexplored conundrum: On the one hand, the consumer can avoid the ad, which usually are perceived as annoying. But on the other hand, their ad viewing experience and the ad’s narrative are disrupted.
This study sheds light on this issue and analyses how skippability and skipping influence consumers’ attitudes towards the ad and the brand. My results show that although skipping is self-imposed, it causes users to enjoy the ad less and creates feelings of irritation. I present and test strategies for advertisers that help mitigate this effect. In particular, I show that displaying the brand and product during the initial seconds of a skippable ad leads to significantly better ad and brand perceptions. Also, combining skippable with non-skippable ad formats in a campaign significantly improves the performance vis-à-vis ad campaigns that only feature skippable ads.
