Best YouTube Pre-Roll campaigns for #MondayMotivation

Love it or hate it – YouTube is still the one-stop destinations for video consumption. Media reports peg that watch time on YouTube increases 60 per cent year on year while mobile YouTube’s watch time has doubled in the last one year.

YouTube Pre Roll ads are one of the best ways to indulge in active conversations with avid content viewers. These ads, of course, need to be crisp, creative, and to the point – conveying the message and before the user decides to skip it. Not to mention right targeting.

Take a look at these YouTube Pre Roll ad campaigns for some inspiration for the upcoming cricket season.

The Friendly Preroll Campaign

Netflix made a huge investment when it acquired the streaming rights for the cult TV series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The website wanted to recreate the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. craze all over again with The Friendly Preroll Campaign.

Ogilvy Paris tagged thousands of videos of different genres on YouTube in sync with the top searches the video platform receives. So if someone searched dance they were greeted with a pre roll ad of Ross and Monica’s dance routine, creating a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. thirst in 5 seconds.

GEICO Pre Roll Campaign

Wouldn’t you actually go to a website to see the video of a dog disrupting a family dinner or a vacuum cleaner that went berserk? GEICO, an auto insurance brand took Pre Roll ads to an all new level with their Unskippable campaign.

The ad spots in the campaign concluded before the 5 seconds end and by the time the skip ad option appears the fun part of the video has begun making it, well, Unskippable.

Instant Horlicks

Horlicks decided to bank on Pre Roll ads to exhibit how it dissolves in the milk in a matter of minutes. Before the ad gets skippable, the demo is done.

Burger King

Combining hyper-targeting with humour snippets, Burger King conveyed their meal offered in precise five seconds. If users searched about North Korean kids playing guitar, they were greeted with a Burger King ad that features two guys conversing sarcastically with them on the topic the user searched and gradually mention the offer.

Opel Mokka

Opel Mokka, a German compact SUV, decided to interact using the most important element in the Pre Roll campaign – the Skip Button itself! The SUV’s features were creatively displayed by the car using the skip button as an interactive option with the 5 seconds.

The campaign garnered over 2.5 million views.

To crack a Pre Roll campaign code, brands and agencies have two major options – one, to convey the message in the five seconds with a strong CTA; second, to offer something unskippable.