Jais Holm Skyvald is head of global creative studio The Barn — Arla Foods’ internal creative agency. He is responsible for finding ways — by looking at the length, the story, and the platform — the dairy company can drive better results from its video ads.
As the world of advertising evolves, one thing remains constant: the power of captivating video ads. But with so much content vying for viewers' attention — every month, over 100 million people watch YouTube and YouTube TV on their TV screens — how can you ensure your message cuts through the noise and resonates with your audience?
At The Barn, we believe the key lies in embracing a "never finish" mentality. This doesn't mean abandoning projects or sacrificing quality. Instead, it's about fostering an environment of continuous learning and improvement, where every campaign is an opportunity to refine your approach and achieve better results.
Working with the team at Google's Creative Works, we’ve put together three key actions all marketers can adopt to help you craft exceptional video ads.
And this is how we put them into action ourselves, to create our new Arla Lactofree campaign, The Milk Sommelier.
1. The secret to watchable ads
The most impactful videos are story-rich and feature human and emotional elements. That’s because human stories resonate. People crave connection and meaning. They don't want to buy a product, they want to hear a story.
Tap into the emotional core of your brand and connect it to the "why" behind your viewers' everyday choices. We did this through The Milk Sommelier, where you meet Sune:
Sune brings his own story — his love of milk from a young age, his passion for his craft, and his own sense of humour — to the advert. And let’s face it, you instantly love him.
As a character, Sune allowed us to connect to milk-buying customers in a whole new way, aligning the lactose-free milk we were promoting, with something consumers are a lot more familiar with, in a way that doesn’t feel product-focused.
2. Long-form ads that work
Longer videos (2-3 minutes) can be effective to drive consideration. The time allows you to delve deeper into your narrative, build emotional connections, and ultimately leave a lasting impression.
To raise consideration of lactose-free milk, our research showed us the main barrier was taste — and we needed more time with our potential customers so we could tell them how it would taste. That’s why we embraced long-form storytelling with this campaign.
As our brand manager Patricia Trentin explains: “We know from research that the main shopping barrier is that consumers don't think Arla LactoFREE milk tastes good. But we knew buyers did! Therefore, our objective put us on a journey to recalibrate and enhance our consumer’s perception of taste. We knew that we needed more time with consumers to change their perception of taste.”
Our next step was to identify the platforms best fitted for delivering engaging longform ads and a high reach among all potential category users. Trentin continues: “Having a longform approach also meant we could tell the taste story from a different angle. We were clear from the start that it needed to be story-led and treating the product as a story element, instead of the usual product lead approach.”
And it worked, our audience watched on average 56 seconds of Sune’s story. They fell in love with the sommelier, his quirky personality and niche profession fits right into the story we wanted to tell. It allowed us to tell a story that was not rushed, but that easily fitted into most people’s viewing habits.
3. Reach viewers where they stream
Connected TV (CTV) offers a unique opportunity to reach viewers in a high-engagement environment. We utilise this platform to showcase our longer-form content and connect with audiences in a more personal and impactful way.
For this project we actually invested 70% of our budget into CTV, and at first our results were not as good as we had hoped. However, we know that creativity is a continuous journey, not a destination. By embracing our "never finish" mindset, we were able to go back to our creative and our strategy and tweak it to keep improving performance.
We bypassed skipping behaviour and maximise watch time by creating captivating content that leverages the larger screen size. We focused more on Sune, delivering a lean-back, entertaining experience CTV viewers are looking for.
By following these tips and adopting a continuous improvement mindset, you can create video ads that not only capture attention but also drive meaningful results in 2024 and beyond.
