The Essence of Good Storytelling on Mobile

I love this quote: “Mobile is not about being quicker, but simply better.” It was was pulled from a recently discovered video that was powered by Google’s Unskippable Labs, which features Google’s latest series of experiments around mobile video advertising.

Basically, they took Mountain Dew’s Kickstart “Come Alive” commercial and cut it three ways, including a long form commercial on mobile. In doing so, they were able to measure the impact, especially around viewer retention and engagement. From that study, they were able to really see how storytelling changes on mobile, and as you will see in the final report, users were actually more engaged with the longer form commercial on their mobile device. Click here to view the whole study with additional details.

Mobile is not about being quicker, but simply better.”

In an era of quick cuts and appealing to short attention spans, it was refreshing to see this perspective of the value in telling a good story – even on a mobile screen.

The Future of User-Generated Advertising
This leads to additional thought about the future of mobile advertising, and how consumers will engage with a brand. Especially with Gen Z on the front lines of the digital space, it would be interesting to see how they respond to this storytelling treatment over time. I like how the video makes the distinction that ads need to appeal to people, not consumers. Given that, I think commercials will eventually evolve into a user-generated model of personal storytelling, in which the viewer becomes the actor, director and the true messenger. It will be in their voice, supporting the brand and/or product. Whether it’s through a user-generated, feed-based engine or community-based platform, it will happen. Ultimately, that will represent a new era for user-generated advertising across all platforms – starting with mobile.

Feel free to share your thoughts (or good stories). 🙂

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1 comment

    • Stephanie79 on July 13, 2015 at 10:36 pm
    • Reply

    Great post and I like your thoughts on user gen advertising.

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