In a recent study with Lóreal and Google, where they tested typical ad, tutorial and testimonial, there were some interesting results. First the typical ad had the best view-through-rate but was not necessarily driving action so much.
What really struck me on the study were the following points:
1) If you are interrupted, you want to be interrupted with something that looks good.
Pre-rolls have been around for a while so people are expecting to see ads when they are checking YouTube. It is almost like an ad break, but apparently slightly more annoying.
2) Women are actively looking for the tutorials, not ads
Especially this is true to the millennials, they are used to less ad-looking content production. If you are interrupted with tutorial when you want to watch a tutorial, not surprisingly you are not necessarily watching it through.
3) Younger audience appreciates the more “real” approach and it drives more action
This pretty much highlights the point I have been going through for a while. Brands need to have their ad and content game in check. Creating great content is not supplementing the hard-working ads. And vice-versa: hard-working ad is quite seldom great content. What works as a pre-roll does not necessarily work in another formats.
Content production is totally meaningless if you do not think the context where you are showing it.
Stand-Up Strategy 