Are you working or watching short films?

Short films first entered the marketing and advertising toolbox in 2001 with BMW’s  “The Hire”, a 8-part series of short films directed by such big names as John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu, John Woo, and Joe Carnahan. In total, eight films were created in the series. And, since its debut, The Hire has received more than 100 million film views, Including the outstanding Powder Keg.

Since that time, many companies and even nonprofits have been introducing short films as a way to build product and brand awareness, and marketing buzz. Like traditional long films, short films are dramatic in nature, well scripted, acted and filmed. But the short film format is evolving too and recent trends show that they are growing in length. Currently the average length at Blip.tv 14 minutes where most used to be under 5 minutes and there used to be a two-minute limit.

There are now literally hundreds of short films available on Facebook and UTube, created and presented from corporations as diverse as Dove and Pampers.

A purusal of the Top 10 Short Films of 2010 on YouTube shows the following, all under 10 minutes in length.

cows & cows & cows by cyriak  at 6.55 minutes

IRON BABY by PatrickBoivin  at 6.37 minutes

Pokémon Apokélypse: Live Action Trailer HD by Megasteakman at 5.79 minutes

DAN the MAN by studioJOHO at 5.59 minutes

T-SHIRT WAR!! (stop-motion music video) by RhettandLink at 5.52 minutes

Vuvuzela Symphony by MysteryGuitarMan at 3.40 minutes

A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything by DispleasedEskimo at 2.88 minutes

Modern Warfare: Frozen Crossing Pt. 2 by freddiew at 2.80 minutes

Lego - The Force Unleashed by xxxfancypantsxxx at 2.20 minutes

I found it interesting that while short films were originally launched in 2001 by a commercial enterprise as a branding and marketing effort, only one company short film shows up in the Top 10 in 2010. Should companies abandon the short film for advertising? I don’t think so, but they have a lot of competition now.  According to ReelSEO's study 37% of users who watched video of a professional quality online (including short films) found them as or more enjoyable than watching full length films on TV.

In fact, Eyeblaster Research has found that Online video advertising spending in the US is projected to grow from $1.1 billion in 2009 to $4.1 billion in 2013 – quadrupling in four years. And when are people watching these films?

You guessed it – at work! The Eyeblaster study shos that the maximum full video viewing takes place between 9am - 4pm ET.  

And films viewed during the day are shown to be more memorable. A MillwardBrown and Dynamic Logic survey found that only 21% of the people watching DVR playback and 30% of people watching TV airtime pay attention to commercials, compared to 46% of people watching In- Stream video ads online.

So companies should continue to invest in short film video and consider how the short film format can be added to their emerging media toolbox for branding and customer engagement.