The history and future of 15 second commercials: an empirical investigation of the perceptions of ad agency media directors

Abstract

This paper present s an historical perspective of the introduction of 10 and 15 second commercial :advertisements, as well as some indications as to the future of shorter ads on commercial television . An empiric al investigation of eight- three media directors of t h e largest Canadian advertising agencies i s presented. The results are consistent with previous results from other countries and indicate that 15 second commercials are very effective and attractive in certain situations, but are less likely to be successful for many business situations. While the current survey was conducted in a Canadian context, there is some evidence that the results are generalizeable to North America. The authors provide useful suggestions for further research .