Hulu's Long Form Ads

As I spend my Thanksgiving break catching up on my favorite TV shows on Hulu, I have come to appreciate one thing: Hulu often gives their audience the option of watching multiple 30 second commercials throughout the video or watching one 2 minute commercial at the beginning of the viewing experience and watching the rest of your video uninterrupted. 


I am so, so, SO in favor of watching a 2 minute commercial to have a interruption-free 22 minutes of Parks & Recreation. Hulu viewers seem to agree: a recent study found that 88% of viewers would prefer to watch a long form ad in place of multiple short ads. Personally, multiple short ads frustrate me during my viewing experience and don't necessarily leave me with a positive view of the brand that is interrupting my stories. 


There are issues with this new type of advertising to these types of audiences. First, audience attention can be difficult to hold for a solid two minutes. This presents a challenge to advertisers, but it can hopefully force them to be more creative and innovative with these advertisements.  A way that I've seen that challenge addressed is through interactive games or requiring audience participation in various parts of the ad. Another concern is that some advertising just wouldn't translate in this type of format and much of that has to do with user engagement.  


The bloggers at Parks Associate think the way to end this problem of engagement is to offer two 1 minute ads in place of one 2 minute ads. This makes it easier for advertisers to keep audience engagement and easier for audiences to remain engaged. 


I was surprised to read that HuluPlus was not going to be an ad free service, even though users pay for it. Hulu did state that they would attempt to optimize the ad experience for each device that HuluPlus is authorized for use. Their website offers this explanation:

Hulu's goal for this subscription product has always been to offer the largest content selection to users for the lowest price. By making Hulu Plus an ad-supported subscription service, we were able to offer the low price of $7.99 to subscribers for the deepest library of current TV programming online.

 All in all, I think Yan at YanPritzker.com has it correct: "When the ad content get interesting, user attention is captures, users aren't annoyed by bad and irrelevant ads, everybody wins."